ASIA / PACIFIC
Page 16 n THE ASIAN REPORTER
September 21, 2015
Is North Korean airline world’s worst? It may be the quirkiest
By Eric Talmadge
The Associated Press
YONGYANG, North Korea — If an
Air Koryo passenger ignores its
no-photography rule, a flight
attendant might take the camera and
delete the pictures herself. Crumpling up a
newspaper bearing the image of North
Korean leader Kim Jong Un can earn
travellers a stern lecture, or worse.
Those are among many quirks that may
help explain why North Korea’s airline has
earned a singular distinction: It’s been
ranked the world’s worst airline for four
straight years.
Air Koryo is the only carrier to have been
awarded just one star in recent rankings
released by the U.K.-based SkyTrax con-
sultancy agency. More than 180 airlines
are included in the five-star ranking
system, which is widely considered the
global benchmark of airline standards.
Some experts and frequent Air Koryo
passengers disagree with the “world’s
worst” title. The airline is definitely a
unique ride, but fairly reliable, they say.
The SkyTrax ratings are focused on
service and not safety.
“It’s a bit of a giggle, actually. They are
clearly not the world’s worst airline,” said
Simon Cockerell, of the Koryo Group, a
Beijing-based
travel
agency
that
specializes in North Korea. The agency has
no relation to Air Koryo, though Cockerell
and his tourists often fly on the airline.
Cockerell said Air Koryo’s weaknesses
tend to be the kind of thing SkyTrax
focuses on: cabin attendants tend not to
speak foreign languages very well, there is
no in-flight magazine, the meals aren’t
going to win any awards, and, on older
planes, condensation from the cooling
systems tended to dampen seats and drip
on passengers.
“It’s not Emirates,” he said, referring to
Dubai’s Emirates Airlines, a four-star
P
according to SkyTrax. “It’s not quite the
flying experience people are used to.”
In-flight entertainment is usually
limited to the popular Moranbong Band
girl group singing patriotic odes to the
leader, or North Korean cartoons, shown
on drop-down screens attached to the
cabin ceilings. On the less than two-hour
hop from Beijing, there is a meal of sorts. It
resembles a hamburger.
But Air Koryo isn’t what it used to be.
Its four-plane fleet of aircraft used on
international flights is surprisingly new —
acquired in 2008. Lax practices, like not
announcing when the plane was about to
land or skipping the safety demon-
strations before takeoff, were fixed long
ago. The new airport terminal, a vast
improvement over the temporary, ware-
house-like building used until recently,
provides travellers with a business-class
lounge.
At the same time, being the flag-carrier
of a nation shunned by much of the west
cannot be good for an airline’s image. Air
Koryo’s only regular international
Japan continues
legacy of Little
League dominance
Continued from page 9
is the best run by any
international team in
almost 25 years. The last
international team with
such a run, winning five
championships
between
1986 and 1991, was
another
Asian
team:
Chinese Taipei.
In the 30 Little League
World
Series
played
between 1986 and 2015, 23
finals have featured Asian
teams, and 15 of those
teams have won. Major
League Baseball may only
have a smattering of Asian
players, but there’s no
doubt about it: Little
League is dominated by
Asian squads.
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HARD
Difficulty
9 7
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level: Hard
# 11
#38296
Instructions: Fill in the grid so that the digits 1
through 9 appear one time each in every row, col-
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Solution to
last week’s
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Puzzle #12835 (Medium)
All solutions available at
<www.sudoku.com>.
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destinations are Beijing, Shanghai, and
Shenyang in China and the Russian port of
Vladivostok.
“I’m not sure that I’ve ever seen or heard
any references to Air Koryo being unsafe,
only that its service is terrible,” Patrick
Smith, an airline pilot and author of the
“Ask The Pilot” blog, said in an e-mail to
The Associated Press before the latest
ratings came out.
“Everything about North Korea is seen
as a kind of running joke, so we should
probably expect that its airline is seen this
way too, right or wrong,” he said, with the
caveat that he has never actually flown on
Air Koryo. “Some of the world’s best and
safest airlines are carriers the average
American has never heard of.”
Smith noted that Air Koryo’s fleet is
mainly Russian TU-204s and AN-148s,
which may not be as comfortable or
efficient as their American- or European-
SHODDY SERVICE? An Air Koryo plane sits on
the tarmac in front of the new Pyongyang International
Airport terminal building, in Pyongyang, North Korea.
Air Koryo is the only carrier to have been awarded just
one star in rankings released by the U.K.-based
SkyTrax consultancy agency. (AP Photo/Wong
Maye-E)
built counterparts, but are not unsound.
In fact, getting its passengers where
they are going — in one piece — might be
Air Koryo’s strong point.
The only known fatal accident it suffered
was in 1983, when the airline was still
named CAAK, according to Harro Ranter,
founder and director of the Aviation Safety
Network,
a
private,
independent
foundation that has compiled detailed
descriptions of more than 10,700
incidents, hijackings, and accidents going
back to the 1950s.
Ranter cautioned that 32 years without
a fatal accident does not necessarily mean
an airline is safe.
“A big factor in the safety of an airline is
the country’s ability to conduct proper
safety oversight, the level of implementa-
tion of international aviation standards
and regulations,” he said in an e-mail to
The AP. “It’s very hard to rank airlines
based on safety. The worldwide level of air
safety has improved significantly over the
years, so any comparison on the number of
accidents or fatalities is impossible.”
Still, he noted North Korea scored above
the world average on most aspects in an
audit of the level of implementation of
international aviation standards and
regulations
conducted
by
the
International Civil Aviation Organization
in 2008, the most recent data available.
“If these results are still valid, there is
no reason to assume that Air Koryo would
be unsafe,” he said.