Asiana Airlines

Founding

Korean Air (associated with the Hanjin Group), which was privatized in 1969, had a monopoly on the South Korean airline industry until the establishment of Asiana in 1988. Asiana's formation did not come about as a policy initiative favoring liberalized market conditions but rather because of pressure from other chaebols and interests who wanted to compete. It was formed by the Kumho Asiana Group (formerly Kumho Group) and was originally known as Seoul Air International. Asiana was established on 17 February 1988 and started operations in December 1988 with flights to Busan. As of 2007 the airline was owned by private investors (30.53%), Kumho Industrial (29.51%), Kumho Petrochemical (15.05%), foreign investors (11.9%), Korea Development Bank (7.18%), and others (5.83%).

Beginning regular service

Asiana began operations in December 1988, using Boeing 737 Classic planes, with flights to Busan and Gwangju. In 1989, Asiana began regular services to Jeju City, Gwangju, and Daegu and later the same year, Asiana began international chartered flights to Sendai in Japan. In 1990, Asiana began its first scheduled international service to Tokyo, Nagoya, Sendai, and Fukuoka. In the same year, Asiana had 9 Boeing 747-400s, 10 Boeing 767–300s and 8 Boeing 737–400s. In early 1991, Asiana began services to Bangkok, Singapore, Hong Kong and Taipei. Transpacific flights to Los Angeles began in December 1991 with a Boeing 747-400 Combi. Services to Vienna, Brussels, and Honolulu began in the mid 1990s. In 1993, Asiana began services to Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam.

Expansion as global carrier and joining Star Alliance

Asiana Airlines has rapidly expanded since its establishment in 1988 to become a mid-sized, global carrier with a current fleet of 85 aircraft. In December 1998, the airline operated the presidential airplane for the first time. The Airline was listed in KOSDAQ In December 1999. On 28 January 2003, the airline became a full Star Alliance member, expanding its worldwide network and global brand. In 2004, the airline added the Airbus A330 and the Boeing 777-200ER to its fleet, and expanded its routes into mainland China. Currently it provides international services to 71 cities in 23 countries on 91 routes, and domestic services to 12 cities on 14 routes. It also provides international cargo services to 29 cities in 14 countries on 28 routes by Asiana Cargo, the airline's freight division. In 2012, the airline had net sales of US$5.3 billion.

New corporate identity

In February 2006, Asiana Airlines modernized its corporate identity for unification with those of other divisions of its parent company the Kumho Asiana Group. The names of the travel classes have changed from First Class, Business Class, and Economy Class to First, Business, and Travel classes respectively, and the colors of the travel classes have changed to yellow, blue and red for First, Business, and Travel Class, respectively. New uniforms were also created for the crew.

Future developments

Since the 2000s (decade), Asiana has focused on long-haul services and fleet modernization. As of December 2013, Asiana operates total 90 (45 round-trip) transpacific passenger flights per week. The airline also plans to increase the size of its fleet from current 83 to 85, with the delivery of the Airbus A380 in May 2014. For safety improvement, further focus will also be made on improving communications between crews.

Notable achievements

Asiana began to focus on being an environmentally friendly company in the mid-90s and has put its efforts ever since in this regard, such as completely banning in-flight smoking and cigarette sales in 1995. The company was awarded first in class certification by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) for meeting criteria ISO 14001 in 1996. In 2001, Asiana Airlines was recognized for being the "first environmentally friendly company within the service industry" by the Ministry of Environment. Some of Asiana's other environmentally-minded programs include an emissions measurement and reduction system, reducing pollution from ground facilities and partnering with the Rainforest Alliance for coffee served on board.

On 17 February 2009, Air Transport World (ATW) awarded Asiana the "Airline of the Year" award, which is considered to be one of the most honorable awards in the airline industry. In May 2010, Asiana Airlines was named the best airline in the world by Skytrax at the 2010 World Airline Awards. Asiana came in second place behind Qatar Airways in 2011 and 2012.

Corporate affairs

The airline has its headquarters in Asiana Town (아시아나타운) in Osoe-dong, Gangseo-gu, Seoul. The airline's head office moved from Hoehyeon-dong, Jung District to Asiana Town in Osoe-dong on 1 April 1998.

Destinations

Asiana Airlines serves destinations on four continents with a well-developed Asian network that includes important cities in the People's Republic of China, Japan, Southeast Asia and Central Asia. The airline serves a number of gateway cities in North America and Europe while retaining a limited coverage of Oceania. It is the first airline that has developed regular passenger routes between Seoul and Tashkent, Almaty, Siem Reap, Phnom Penh and Koror. Besides regular routes, Asiana also has served a number of seasonal charter routes from Seoul to some tourist attractions such as Nha Trang, Lijiang and Zhangjiajie.

Asiana Cargo, the airline's only cargo subsidiary, also has a wide network, especially in Europe and the United States, and currently serves cities that Asiana does not offer regular passenger services to and from. Some of these cities in Europe, include Brussels, Milan, and Vienna. Some of these cities in the United States, include Atlanta, Dallas, and Miami.

Since early 2016, the airline's network expansion has slowed down as it terminated its service to Vladivostok, Denpasar and Yangon in February 2016, due to their disappointing financial results. In addition, as low-cost regional carriers increase their market shares in short-haul routes, Asiana decided to launch Air Seoul, the airline's second subsidiary and its own low-cost carrier, based in Incheon International Airport, and transfer some of its unprofitable routes to the subsidiary from November 2016. While continuously trying to obtain traffic rights for Korea-Mongolia routes, the airline is currently considering more investment in its long-haul services.

Codeshare agreements

Asiana Airlines codeshares with the following airlines:

Fleet

As of October 2016, Asiana Airlines' fleet consists of the following aircraft:

Fleet gallery

Retired fleet

The company has previously operated the following aircraft:

In-flight services

Asiana Airlines offers five classes of services – First Suite class, First class, Business Smartium class, Business class and Travel (economy) class. Seat configurations and in-flight entertainment systems vary by the type of the aircraft and its operating routes, although Asiana is likely to simplify those with upcoming deliveries of its new orders from Airbus.

First Suite class and First class are mainly offered in between Seoul and Los Angeles, New York City, Chicago and Frankfurt. Passengers in these classes are offered pajamas, souvenirs and "amenity kits" containing items such as skin cream, toothpaste, eye shades and earplugs. A passenger can pre-order in-flight meals 48 hours prior to departure. First class seats are equipped with personal AVOD systems.

Besides those routes, most of Asiana's international flights offer two type of classes – business smartium class or business class as the highest class, and travel class, without first class. Some of the short-length international flights and charter flights are operated by mono-class basis, as well as all of the airline's domestic flights. Every business "smartium" class seat is equipped with video on demand. Other business-class seats were upgraded to video on demand by 2014. Apart from some routes operated by 767 and A321-100 aircraft, most of Asiana's Travel class seats also have television or video systems. In-flight entertainment systems are not offered on domestic routes, which consist of flights of an hour or less.

Asiana offers two in-flight magazines, 'Asiana' (a travel magazine) and 'Asiana Entertainment', which are available to all passengers.

Frequent-flyer program

Asiana Club is Asiana Airline's frequent-flyer program, formerly Asiana Bonus Club. Asiana Club has five tiers: Silver, Gold, Diamond, Diamond Plus and Platinum. To acquire or maintain each tier, members are required to accrue 0, 20000, 40000, 100000 miles in two calendar years from the 'reference date'. Status miles are based on 'On-board mileage', which includes miles accumulated by traveling with Asiana Airlines or Star Alliance airlines. Also, members can accrue miles by flying 'partner airlines' such as Qatar Airlines. Miles accumulated in the program entitle members to bonus tickets, class upgrades and other products and services such as dining at Outback Steakhouse.

In addition, individuals who accumulate 500,000 miles earned on Asiana receive lifetime Asiana Diamond Plus status. Individuals who accumulate 1,000,000 miles earned on Asiana receive lifetime Asiana Club Platinum status.

Partners

Asiana Club Miles can be collected on all flights operated by Star Alliance member airlines, Air Astana, Qatar Airways and Etihad Airways.

Marketing

Asiana has endorsement deals with the following:

Incidents and accidents