Asiana Airlines
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Asiana Airlines 아시아나 항공 Asiana Hanggong
IATA OZ	ICAO AAR	Callsign ASIANA
Founded		1988
Hubs		Incheon International Airport Gimpo International Airport
Focus cities		Gimhae International Airport Jeju International Airport
Frequent flyer program		Asiana Club
Member lounge		Asiana Lounge
Alliance		Star Alliance
Subsidiaries		Air Busan
Fleet size		68 (+31 orders)
Destinations		77 incl. cargo
Parent company		Kumho Asiana Group
Headquarters		Seoul, South Korea
Key people		Kang, Chu-Ahn (CEO)
Website: http://www.flyasiana.com/

Asiana Airlines (Hangul: 아시아나 항공; RR: Asiana Hanggong; KRX: 020560; formerly Seoul Airlines) is an airline based in Seoul, South Korea and is one of South Korea's two major airlines, along with Korean Air.

Asiana is a member of the Star Alliance and operates services to 12 domestic destinations and 73 international destinations in 17 countries worldwide.¹

Asiana's headquarters and overseas hub is located at Incheon International Airport (near Seoul) and its domestic hub is at Gimpo International Airport.

History

Asiana was established on 17 February 1988 and started operations in December 1988 with flights to Busan. It was formed by the Kumho Asiana Group (formerly Kumho Group) as part of the South Korean government's policy to create a second flag carrier and was originally known as Seoul Air International. The South Korean government has given its approval for foreign ownership of the airline to increase from 20% to 50%. The airline is owned by private investors (30.53%), Kumho Industrial (29.51%), Kumho Petrochemical (15.05%), foreign investors (11.9%), Korea Development Bank (7.18%), others (5.83%) and employs 7,799 staff (at March 2007).¹

New Image

An Asiana Boeing 777-200ER in post-2006 colours departs from Sydney Airport in Australia

In February 2006, Asiana Airlines modernised its corporate identity to harmonise 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 are also planned for the crew.²

On 18 April 2007 Asiana was awarded a 5-star rating by Skytrax, an accolade shared with Cathay Pacific, Malaysia Airlines, Qatar Airways, Singapore Airlines and Kingfisher Airlines.³

Destinations

Further information: Asiana Airlines destinations

Codeshare agreements

Asiana 747 in new livery taking off from Manila

The airline has code-share agreements with the following airlines (as of November 2008):⁴

Fleet

Passenger

The Asiana Airlines fleet consists of the following aircraft:¹

• The average Asiana Airlines fleet age was 7.6 years old in March 2008.⁶
• Asiana Airlines will return all of its leased Boeing 747-400 passenger aircraft, while it has a plan to convert three B747-400M to freighters. In order to compensate for the loss of these passenger jets, Asiana will introduce two Boeing 777-200ER aircraft and one Boeing 777-300ER aircraft. Asiana plans discussions with Boeing in September for further aircraft procurement.^{citation needed}
• Asiana assigns Hong Kong, Saipan and Taipei to its Southeast Asia grouping.⁷⁸

Cargo

The Asiana Cargo fleet consists of the following aircraft:¹

• The first of four Boeing 747-400 combi to full freighter conversions has been delivered from Bedek Aviation Group, part of Israel Aerospace Industries. The second delivery will be later in 2007, with the other two conversions due for delivery in early 2009⁹

Cargo

Asiana Boeing 747-48EM(BDSF) in old livery in Frankfurt

Asiana Cargo is the airline's freight division, operating 747F and 767F freighter aircraft to points in Asia, Europe and North America.

Incidents and accidents

Asiana Airlines logo, 1988-2005

• On 9 June 2006, an Asiana Airlines Flight 8942 A321-100 (HL7594) en route Jeju-Seoul flew through a hailstorm which blew off the aircraft's nose cone, destroyed its radar and shattered the front cockpit windows. The aircraft landed safely at Gimpo Airport. The pilots were initially commended for their actions but then suspended for failure to avoid the storm.¹⁰
• On 11 November 1998, an Asiana Airlines B747-400 attempting a U-Turn in the gate area of the Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport embedded its winglet in an Aeroflot Ilyushin Il-62M tail. No one was injured. Asiana was subsequently sued by Aeroflot. The Il-62M in this incident is now retired and is parked at Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport with the Asiana winglet still embedded into its tail.¹¹
• On 26 July 1993, an Asiana Airlines Flight 733 B737-500 (HL7229) struck high ground in poor weather about 4 kilometres from the runway in Mokpo while it was making its third attempt landing at runway 06 at Mokpo Airport. 2 of the 6 crew members and 66 of the 110 passengers were killed.¹²

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to:

Asiana Airlines

• Asiana Airlines
• Asiana Airlines worldwide site
• Asiana Airlines Seating Guide
• Asiana Airlines Seating Charts on SeatGuru.com