,"The past 24year were an astonishing period for the world;s aviation industry because of the rapid growth of korean air.
Korean Air, which opened the genuine civil aviation era in south korea on march 1, 1969, now emerge as a leading international airline after only being in operation for a quarter of a century.

At the time of Hanjin's takeover of the defict-ridden Korean air Line. KAL was virtually at the bottom in the lists of even Southeast Asian airlines.
But the devoted efforts of the firm's employees led by chairman cho yang-ho helped xstablish the firm status of Korean civil aviation in the international community.

In 1991 korea was fourth in the world aviation KAL carried 15.25 million passenger and 580,000 tons of cargo, flying to 52cities in 24 countries across the globe.
It started business with just one jet plane a DC-9 and seven smaller propeller aircrft in its fleet, and about 500 empolyos with an annual income of last month.

For the past several year, KAL opened new sky ways to Russia, China and Vietnam.
In particular, KAL inaugurated a regular flight service to Chicago last April, which was its long-cherished project, and advanced to South America in October by begining a flight service to Sao Pailo, Brazil.
This means that the airline has built a world-wide network, covering all six continents.

In 1992, KAL earned 2,337 trillion won, chalking up a net profit of about 1 billion won. Revenues increased by 16.4% over 1991, but profit plummeted from 15.9 billion won due to a decrease in the number of passengers and fierce competition among worid airlines.

The world's aviation industry already saw many renowned airlines go bankruot due to the economic recession that began after the 1991 Gulf War. Every airline has been forced to reduce personnel for survial.

The IATA reported that world airlines recorded an estimated deficit of 2.6 billion dollars last year alone, and the deficts for three years since 1990 reached 9 billion dollar. However, Piter bow, chairman of KIM, claimed that world airlines could report losses totalling as much as 7 billion dollars last year.

It has been well known that United Airlines and American Airlines have suffered millions of dollars deficts for several past years in a row, and even Japan Airlines, which had enjoyed a surplus, is presumed to have registerd a deficit of 6 billion yen in 1991 and 50 billion yen in 1992.

Confused apparently by such dull business by 100 billion yen this year while slashing 100 billion in its investment money for this year, aviation sources say.
To cope with deteriorating business environments mainly caused by air fare dumping and world-wide stagnation, KAL has been launching a drive to reform management since last year with the inauguraration of president Cho yang-ho.

By acceleration the campaign upon entering its 25th anniversary, KAL is dtermined to make a second leap.
To survive the recession, KAL sold eight planes this year, and is examining a plan to cancel the omport of new aircraft in the coming years in a bid to lighten fincincial burdens.

KAL is also planning to reduce the number of international fights that bring in low profits and have a low boarding rate.
However, KAL welcomes the construction work of the New Seoul Metropolitan Airport on Yongjong-do Island off Inchon that began last year despite the world-wide recession.

The new airport, which is expected to become a hub of Southeast Asia, will enhance Korea's international power,KAL officials say.
As of the end of last month, KAL has flight services to 52cities in 24 countries-40 foreign cities and 12 domestic cities. The foreign cities include 11 in Japan, nine in Southeast Asian country, eight in Eureope ,nine in the Americas.

KAL is now commanding a fleet of 91 qide-bodied aircraft. They include 11 B747-400 seating 392 each, three B747-300 seating 423 each and four B747-200 seating 410 each.
The fleet also includes 18 A300-600s/R seating 252 each, 10 B727 and five MD-11.
In 1993, KAL expects plans to earn 2.77 trillion won for a profit of 42 billion won, and to invest 730 billion won to expanding its fleet.

The airline inaugurated regular service on the Seoul-Hochimin City route June 4, 1993 and is also seeking to open flights on Korea-China route within a few months with a plan to establish two or three branches in Chiness Cities.

KAL plans to supply a total of 18.79 million seats with a hope to carry 12.79 million passengers for a 68% boarding rate on domestic routes this year.
For international flights, it plans to supply 8.71 million seats, seeking to trasport 5.71 million passengers for a 66 percent boarding rate.
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