On March 20, South Korean carrier Korean Air released its most recent schedule in light of ever-increasing flight suspensions due to travel restrictions and decreasing demand. The list has just 21 international destinations, many of which are cities in North America.
The list of cities
Below is the list of 21 cities according to the airline's March 20 schedule:
- Honolulu
- San Francisco
- New York
- Chicago
- Washington
- Atlanta
- Los Angeles
- Vancouver
- Toronto
- London
- Paris
- Bangkok
- Manila
- Cebu
- Clark/Angeles City
- Phnom Penh
- Beijing
- Shanghai
- Shenyang
- Guangzhou
- Narita
Interestingly, the list includes many North American cities. This is despite travel restrictions imposed by both Canada and the United States. Therefore, we would wager that these services will mainly serve as informal repatriation flights as many travelers rush to return to their homes before these lines are completely cut. We know that this is the case for Emirates, who recently backtracked on a decision to suspend all flights due to lobbying from foreign governments.
On the European side, we now only have three weekly services to London and Paris while service to Bangkok appears to be one of the strongest with two daily services. Finally, several other cities throughout East Asia and Southeast Asia will still be served - albeit with far less frequency than normal.
A380s grounded
Earlier this month Korean Air became the second Asian carrier to ground all 10 of its Airbus A380 superjumbos. This move was made after China Southern grounded its own fleet of five. The airline has told Simple Flying that it does not anticipate having the jet in service before the 25th of April. Other A380 operators have followed suit with grounding their big jets, including Qatar Airways, Air France, and Lufthansa.
We anticipate that Korean Air will be mostly using its fleet of Boeing 787s for its longest routes. This is the case for the Seoul to Vancouver service. One of the Dreamliner's main selling points is its ability to efficiently operate long-haul routes with lower demand. The Boeing 777-200 will fly between Seoul and Washington Dulles airport.
Between Soeul and Honolulu the airline will have a mix of Airbus A330s and Boeing 777s. Surprisingly, the airline has its Boeing 777s scheduled to fly two of its daily Seoul-Bangkok services.
Conclusion
While drastically reducing flight capacity and frequency, some airlines are managing to keep certain services operating as vital links for travelers to get home. Indeed citizens of destination countries will likely be the majority of passengers as countries like Canada and the United States have now banned entry to non-citizens and those without permanent resident status.
Even with this in mind, it is still somewhat surprising to see a list of 21 cities still being served in this current climate.
Are you surprised that Korean Air is still able to offer services to so many destinations? Let us know what you think in the comments.