Improved Safety and Services

Asiana Airlines aims to lure passengers with quality and safety of its services, not with number of airplanes


This is an Airbus A380 passenger aircraft, which is called "the hotel in the sky, "that Asiana Airlines is contracted to buy six of them and put them in service during 2014 and 2017 on its global air routes.

President Yoon Young-doo of Asiana Airlines Co. said the airline's aim is to rank among the top 10 airlines in terms of operating profit, not in exact numbers, but by expanding it in the maximum amount possible year after year in comparison with sales. The strategy is the fruit of the airlines' own dilemma and its own positioning strategy, reports said.
The second airline in Korea, after rival Korean Air, no longer thinks that expanding its scale is the best strategy, but improving its quality is the best choice as it looks at its overall strategy at this juncture.
CEO Yoon believes that Asiana should strengthen its competitive strength by improving its service quality and do everything possible to see to it that its customers are satisfied with their services. This means that the airline will cut expenses in all of its other operational sectors to boost its operating profit.
Last year, the airline' operating profit stood at 12 percent of sales, easily beating Korean Air's. It fell short of the 20 percent achieved by Emirate Airlines, but Yoon is confident that the airline can boost its operating profit to 20 percent by 2015.
Yoon said the airline had one of its best years last year, which is more surprising because it came right after the end of the global financial crisis. In addition, the airline hit a grand slam in the airline industry by winning the ATW award, which is known as the Nobel Prize of the industry, and also by winning the Five-Star Award in February and the Airline of the Year award from Sky Tracks in May 2010.
The CEO said he expects a short-term impact on the number of passengers due to the Japanese earthquake and its nuclear power plant accidents, but he is confident the airline? new routes would cover the shortfall, especially the new routes in China where Asiana will open more new routes earlier than it had originally planned.
Yoon boasted that Asiana would be the air carrier that provides the best and safest service in line with its positioning strategy to be a top global air carrier.
The CEO said the airline plans to assign the latest modern passenger aircraft to its major long haul air routes, such as those to the United States, Europe and Oceania and its short and medium haul air routes including Tokyo, Osaka, Hong Kong, Beijing and Shanghai, among others, along with differentiated services on those routes.
Yoon said Asiana would not be a huge airline with several hundred airplanes and routes reaching every corner of the globe, but one that provides top quality services of a global standard that all of its passengers will appreciate.
In February, Asiana signed a contract to buy six Airbus A380 aircraft, which is called "the hotel in the sky," which will be delivered from 2014 through 2017. The airline will also build a new hangar, which will be big enough to handle the repair of two large aircraft and a small airplane at the same time. The airline will also modify four of its B-777 planes this year, Yoon said.
Yoon is highly appreciative of the pending opening of the Gimpo-Beijing route, as it will increase the number of Chinese tourists to Korea. He said a Chinese passenger transferring to other airlines at Gimpo is said to be spending 300,000 won per person, while a Chinese tourist on a visit to Korea would spend 2.52 million won per person, 8.4 times more than the transfer passenger. In addition, it would create 2,383 jobs when the new air route opens.
The CEO also said the airline opened the Seoul-Istanbul three-times-a-week route on March 29 and the airline will be able to offer various travel products on its flights to London, Paris and Frankfurt with Istanbul as the transfer point.
Yoon said Asiana plans to strengthen its flights to the United States by increasing the number of flights on the Seoul-Seattle and Seoul-San Francisco routes by two more per week. nw

Photo on Courtesy of Asiana Airlines