Business and tourism must be booming in North Korea, because the country is seeing service from a second international airline!
In this post:
Air China resumes once weekly Beijing to Pyongyang route
Air China has announced that it’s resuming flights between Beijing (PEK) and Pyongyang (FNJ). The once weekly flight to North Korea will operate with the following schedule:
CA121 Beijing to Pyongyang departing 8:05AM arriving 11:00AM
CA122 Pyongyang to Beijing departing 12:00PM arriving 12:55PM
The flight will be operated on Mondays in both directions using a Boeing 737-700, which features 128 seats, including eight business class seats and 120 economy class seats. The 488-mile flight is blocked at 1hr55min in each direction.
Currently North Korea is primarily served by world class airline Air Koryo, often regarded as one of the world’s finest airlines (in the annual Cairo Airport Quality Awards).
Air Koryo currently flies from Pyongyang to Beijing (PEK), Chongjin (RGO), Hamhung (DSO), Samjiyon (YJS), Shenyang (SHE), Vladivostok (VVO), and Wonsan (WOS). The country also has service from Nordwind Airlines, which flies from Moscow (SVO).
This marks a service resumption after six years
Air China last served North Korea in 2020, around the start of the coronavirus pandemic. China is of course known for the extent to which it shut down at the start of the pandemic, while North Korea… well, I believe they were claiming they never had coronavirus?
A Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson claims that these flights will facilitate friendly exchanges between people of the two countries. Interestingly the announcement of the flight service resumption comes just a week after it was announced that train links between the two countries would be restored as well.
China is North Korea’s largest trading partner, and an important source of economic and political support for the isolated country. So it seems like this increase in service is part of a larger effort to boost ties.
Air China flying to North Korea simplifies connections greatly, since Air China has more partnerships and interline agreements than Air Koryo. The catch is that there’s not actually much demand for travel to North Korea, given the extent to which citizens are forbidden from traveling, while the country continues to be largely closed off to tourism, aside from a small number of organized tours from “friendly” countries.
If you’re going to visit North Korea, I feel like Air Koryo is very much part of the cultural experience, no? So I can’t imagine this flight will be full at all, but instead, it’s presumably operating for political reasons, and maybe to transport some amount of cargo.
Bottom line
Air China will be resuming capital-to-capital flights between China and North Korea, with a once weekly Beijing to Pyongyang flight. This marks the resumption of a route for the airline that previously operated about six years ago, at the start of the pandemic. Air Koryo already operates this route, though it’s rare to see service from foreign airlines in North Korea, so I’d consider this to be pretty noteworthy.
I can’t imagine the demand for this flight is huge, so presumably this is primarily political, but perhaps there’s also some amount of cargo demand.
What do you make of Air China resuming North Korea flights?
@kevin
Yes you will visit north korea. But of course you will be put to death if they see you dance. Or vidit Pan Mun Jon or however it is spelled. You can enter one of the buildings on the border. You can walk to other end of table and you are in North Korea.
After Iran and Cuba, Trump is probably going to take care of NK one way or another (marrying Barron to Kim Jong Un's daughter when she's older)? So the days of that regime are also numbered.
@Rod for the winning comment.
Nah, mediocre at best.
Mr Ben, this is Supreme Leader Kim. Please do not be sarcastic about our airline, we provide Osetra Caviar, Dom Perignon champagne and even a KTV bar on the plane. In the DPRK, we do not appreciate such remarks, please come fly with us
I’m now 64. US citizen. I’m been to about 115 countries. I’ve wanted to visit PRK for years and years. It’s still on my bucket list - but will it happen in my lifetime?
Nah, blame the US govt (past and present) for this. Get citizenship outside of USA.
Alternatively, I had a friend who drove a dirt bike illegally into DPRK and had the military chase him around for 4 days so you could try that out, but don’t recommend.
You actually can in the past, maybe soon in the future, but just need some courages. Do you homework seriously and behaves extremely conservatively. if you do go, go with a Chinese friend, that will have a better sense of what you could do and what you should not do. Americans in general are very careless in general when running in another country, assuming they will be forgiven if they just simply do not know certain rules.
Sounds like a better airline then Liddle Timothy "Tom' "Theodore" Deuce"'sJet!
Cool! So now when I take my vacation to North Korea (as one does), I can earn Mileage Plus points on my flights there!
North Korea is still closed to international tourism, unless you have a Russian passport.
*woosh*
That's not true.
A friend of mine is an EU citizen who's visited the DPRK twice. Visas, tour guides etc are obviously mandatory- you can't just turn up for a quick look.
@Throwawayname - It used to be possible but currently it's not. It is expected that they will reopen tourism from the west at some point but they're not there yet.
As someone fascinated by unique airport routes, Vladivostok to Pyongang is certainly…a route.
"Air China has more partnerships and interline agreements than Air Koryo"
Valid point to make but gives "hmm yes the floor here is made out of floor" energy
Ben - when are you reviewing this one?
When he does I recommend he uses his EU passport.
Air Koryo is classified as a FIFA Five Star airline.
FIFA acts like they are a legitimate International body like the UN or NATO. But guess what? They're NOTHING. A bunch of petulant adults that never "GREW UP" and play a child's game. Sad! Secretary-General of FIFA?? How do these people take themselves seriously? I had no idea that they gave airline awards buy I am not even surprised.
@rod do you just believe everything you read on the internet
@betterbub do you just believe everything Dinky Liddle Timothy "Alfred E. Deuce" Goofy "Scooby Dooby Doo" "DinkMasterDunce' reads to you? I always found it funny when you qould believe what he would say on Airliners.net (Tom Deuce was "WorldTraveler", and you always Listened and Accepted to his statements. This of course was when he was "Lufthansa's Number One Fan" until they fell out of favor for the so called Dunn Air Lines out of Atlanta...
@betterbub do you just believe everything Dinky Liddle Timothy "Alfred E. Deuce" Goofy "Scooby Dooby Doo" "DinkMasterDunce' reads to you? I always found it funny when you qould believe what he would say on Airliners.net (Tom Deuce was "WorldTraveler", and you always Listened and Accepted to his statements. This of course was when he was "Lufthansa's Number One Fan" until they fell out of favor for the so called Dunn Air Lines out of Atlanta which of course is a buyer Airport than Frankfort anyways, but as Dunce ans you now see Bigger isn't Always Better - seeing as Delta and therefore Scooby and you are Loosing big time. Share price down 75% OTP at an all time low. customer feedback. Employee Engagemnet. Etc. All this is to say that don't listen to busterbub.
@Rod, FIFA is as legitimate an international body as the International Olympic Committe - I.E. it's a corrupt cabal that extracts large amounts of cash/bribes from governments and sports fans.