Korean Air announces three weekly direct flights between Barcelona and Seoul from next April
Barcelona and Seoul will be connected through three direct flights per week from the 28th of April 2017. The Catalan Minister for Business and Knowledge, Jordi Baiget, announced this Wednesday that next year Korean Air, the largest airline in South Korea, will operate three flights - on Monday, Wednesday and Thursday - with capacity for 248 passengers each. The company currently operates flights to 129 destinations in 46 countries and in 2015 registered around 25 million passengers. Baiget detailed that the negotiation process to achieve an agreement started two years ago, on a trade mission and institutional trip of the Catalan Government to South Korea, and explained that the airline will extend the frequency to four days in the future “if things work well”.
Barcelona (CNA).- The airline Korean Air, the largest company in South Korea, announced on Wednesday that it will offer direct flights between Barcelona Airport and Seoul from the 28th of April 2017. The Korean company will initially launch three weekly flights between the two cities, although the forecast is “to extend the frequency by one more day if things work well”, explained the Catalan Minister for Business and Knowledge, Jordi Baiget. The politician detailed that the negotiation process started two years ago, on a trade mission and institutional trip of the Catalan Government to South Korea. Korean Air currently operates flights to 129 destinations in 46 countries and in 2015 saw almost 25 million passengers.
Specifically, the Korean company will operate flights on Monday, Wednesday and Thursday, with a fleet model B777-200 with capacity for 248 passengers. Baiget made the announcement from Panama, where the politician is participating in a trade mission, and detailed that the Catalan Government worked for two years through the Air Route Development Committee of Barcelona (CDRA), the Ministry for Planning and Sustainability, the Catalan Tourism Agency and Acció, the Catalan Public competitiveness and internationalisation agency, to achieve the agreement. In fact, Baiget explained that the process started two years ago on a trade mission and institutional trip of the Government to South Korea in which “one of the issues most highlighted was the necessity for a direct connection between the capital of South Korea and Barcelona”.
Baiget believes that it will be important that the route is “balanced” and that there is traffic from Seoul to Barcelona and vice versa, otherwise “the route will last only shortly and have little future”. The Minister for Business and Knowledge stressed that “there are many people in Catalonia that have an economic and cultural interest in Seoul and in Korea as a country”. “We also want to have the ability to attract Korean people or citizens form the Southeast Asia Peninsula that may come to Catalonia for productive activity, but also for tourism and cruises”.
Founded in 1969, Korean Air has a fleet of 158 aircraft. The company currently operates flights to 129 destinations in 46 countries and in 2015 saw almost 25 million passengers. The airline, with 21,000 employees, has its hub located at Incheon International Airport in Seoul.