Asiana Wins Best Onboard &
Flight Award Selected by Global Traveler
- Its credit rating gets boost

Asiana Airlines has received the Best Onboard & Flight Award from the leading global magazine, Global Traveler. The award that Asiana Airlines has won is one of the eight prizes that Global Travel selects every year, based on the outcome of subscriber questionnaires and its own surveys.
The Best First Class and the Best New Business Class awards went to British Airways and Singapore Airlines, respectively.
Global Traveler is a bimonthly magazine specializing in airline and travel industries and is targeting high-class travelers. The magazine has a circulation of an estimated 65,000 copies.
The award-presenting ceremony was held in the Hudson Theater in New York on Jan. 24 with about 300 people, including the representatives of the eight award-winning airlines and others from the global airline industry participating.
In 2004, Skytrax, a global airline service quality research institution awarded Asiana Airlines with the coveted Airline Excellence Awards.
Meanwhile, the National Information & Credit Evaluation, Inc. (NICE) raised the credit rating of corporate bonds issued by Asiana from BB+ to BBB- on Jan. 11. NICE's upgrading came one day after Korea Investors Service, Inc. revised the credit rating of the Korean national flag-carrier upward.
The upgraded credit rating was attributable partly to the fact that Asiana Airlines is projected to post an estimated 200 billion won in red in 2004 due to improved productivity and the rising demand in spite of crude oil hikes and an improvement in financial soundness riding on the lowering of the debt ratio to the early 300 percent level.
The 2005 business prospects for Asiana are rosy as the airline company is forecast to continue to haul in record profits for the second straight year thanks to such positive factors as rising short-haul travelers following the introduction of the five-day workweek system and an increase in inbound travelers related to Hallyu, or the Korean cultural frenzy blowing in Asia. nw