SEOUL — Korean Air has been ranked the world’s best performing airline by Air Transport World’s (ATW) annual World Airline Report published last August.
The airline posted a net profit of $850 million last year, about a $1.4 billion positive change over 2016. The Korean flag carrier was also ranked by ATW as one of the world’s top 20 airlines in operating revenues and top 25 in operating profit and RPKs (revenue passenger kilometers).
“Korean Air is a remarkably strong airline both in terms of finance and in global operations,” said John Jackson, managing vice president of the Americas. “We are the largest transpacific carrier and have become the strongest transpacific alliance with our joint venture with Delta. We also are in a position along with our partner, Delta, to open new markets like Boston and Minneapolis/St. Paul next spring. This is an exciting time for our airline.”
Korean Air, which is yet to celebrate its 50th anniversary next year, attributes the rise in profitability to a variety of factors including focus on qualitative rather than quantitative growth; more diversified marketing strategies; more flexibility in capacity control; route profitability monitoring; differentiation through customer service; and continued introduction of new aircraft like the B-787, among others.
ATW, the sister publication of Aviation Week, has been ranking the world’s airlines for five decades. The publication has been the leading monthly magazine serving the global airline and air transport manufacturing communities.
To know more about Korean Air's programs, routes, frequencies and partners, visit their website koreanair.com, or visit their social media at Facebook: facebook.com/KoreanAir, Google: google.com/+KoreanAir_KE and Twitter: twitter@KoreanAir_KE.