Asiana Airlines Wins Top 10 Honor

Travel & Leisure names air carrier on top 10 list of int'l airlines on its survey

Asiana Airlines has been made the list of top 10 airlines flying international routes in 2007 recently by "Travel and Leisure,"tourism magazine published in New York. The global publication conducted a survey of its readers worldwide to name the 10 best airlines that serve international routes and the Korean airlines made the list for the first time its inauguration.
Korean Air, the representative air carrier for Korea, failed to make the list, according to Travel and Leisure.
Singapore Airlines took the top place on the list with 88.22 points, Jet Airways(86.67), Emirate Airlines(82.68) Cathay Pacific(79.26), Thai Airlines(79.24) made the top five list. Asiana(74.44), JAL(75.77), and Silk Air(74.97) were among the rest of the list.
The world famous travel magazine commissioned 'Harris Interactive,'a global survey organization to conduct the survey including such areas as comfort, food, in-flight service, customer service, and brand value of the airlines with international flight services by points.
Asiana operates 12 weekly flights between Seoul and Los Angeles, four weekly flights from Seoul to San Francisco, New York, and Seattle and three weekly flights to Chicago, operating five routes between Korea and the United States.
From 2005, the airline included traditional Korean menus on its in-flight food service such as bulgogi(barbecued beef) with fresh vegetables and a paste(passengers can wrap beef pieces and rice with lettuce before eating it), which the passengers appreciated for its unique taste, Asiana airlines officials said.
They went on to say that they have been trying to provide best services available on all its international air routes, not limited to U.S. routes, and the results showed in their air carrier winning the top 10 list honor, recognizing their sweat and toil to upgrade their service during flights.
Vice Chairman Park Chan-bup of Asiana Airlines said next year will be the Asiana Airlines'20th anniversary and the air carrier is preparing for the next take-off on the occasion. The airline plans to buy 8 new Airbus 330s and Boeing 777 and put them into service to improve passenger comfort.
He also revealed that the airline is working on a plan to conclude a tripartite alliance between airlines in Korea, Japan and China, recalling that Asiana has been able to be reborn through the Star Alliance, getting much more benefits than expected during the early stages of joining the alliance.
He said Asiana has been able to expand its routes through the alliance, boosting its image internationally, overcoming disadvantages as a late starter in the business. The alliance covered many countries in the world, Americas, Europe, Asia and Africa, making Asiana expand its air routes, despite difficult conditions brought on by such things as SARS epidemic, and the 9.11 terrorist attack.
Asiana saw its net profit soar to 130.6 billion won last year, ending the year in black for three years in a row. The company declared dividends for the first time since its launching some 20 years ago. During the first quarter this year, the airline netted 43.6 billion won in profit, up 160 percent year-on-year.
Vice Chairman Park took over the helm of the airline in 2001 and has been running the airline for 6 years as its CEO. Park quoted Charles Darwin's Origin of Seeds. "Principles have to be upheld, but should change with environment,"which still holds truth even today. For example, Park is known for his unwieldy nature that he has never yielded to the striking pilot union's unreasonable demands in 2005, although the airline was losing money. He led Asiana to join the Star Alliance in March, 2003, to cope with the changes in the airline industry around the world is also a good example of Park's principle that business has to change with changes in its environment.
Asiana plans to strengthen its cargo flight department this year, aiming at its revenue from cargo flights to record 1 trillion won. The vice chairman separated its cargo department from the business division to be independent from this year. What he aims at is to boost the value-added portion of its business in the cargo department and cut up a big chunk of Chinese air cargoes bound for Europe, which have been increasing year by year.
He said Asiana plans to fly to Paris from next year with plans to fly to Eastern Europe and Canada in the near future.
Kumho-Asiana Group has set aside 2,091.7 billion won in new investments with the goal of achieving "a beautiful ascent"on the global market.
Kumho-Asiana Group under the helm of Chairman Park Sam-koo is putting more energy into maximizing the synergetic effects between Daewoo E&C, acquired by the group in its successful M&A bid, and the group's affiliates. The group plans to strengthen competitiveness. nw

Vice Chairman Park Chan-bup of Kumho-Asiana Group in charge of aviation business.