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On June 5, Air China’s web page began allowing reservations for flights to Pyongyang departing on June 6. (Air China website)
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State-owned airline’s flights to North Korea indication of improved relations and cooperation
The state-owned airline Air China plans to resume service to Pyongyang after suspending its routes late last year citing insufficient demand. Air China will be resuming Beijing-Pyongyang service three times a week on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, starting with flight CA121 from Beijing on June 6. As of June 5, the airline’s web page allowed reservations from a flight departing Beijing at 1:25 pm on June and arriving in Pyongyang at 4:20 the same afternoon. The cost was 4,690 yuan (US$732) for a business class ticket and 2,940 yuan (US$459) for economy. Combined with Air Koryo’s service on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday, this means seven flights a week will be traveling the Beijing-Pyongyang route. The airline explained that its decision to resume service was “based on market demand.” When service between the two cities was previously suspended after a Pyongyang-Beijing flight on the evening of Nov. 20 last year, the reason given by the airline was “unsatisfactory performance”; the new explanation implies the situation has completely turned around in the six months since. Exchange and cooperation have been on the rise between North Korea and China since then, with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un visiting twice for summits with Chinese President Xi Jinping. North Korea has sent a goodwill observing delegation from its Workers’ Party of Korea to China, and Air Koryo charter flight service between Pyongyang and the inland city of Chengdu is scheduled to begin late this month. But it remains to be seen how much practical demand for visits has risen with China’s participation in ongoing UN Security Council resolutions sanctioning the North. Some observers are speculating Air China’s Pyongyang service may be more a matter of political significance than one of actual demand. “In the past, Air China’s Pyongyang service has fluctuated a lot in terms of number of flights, with many cancellations according to circumstances,” an industry source explained. In the end, the resumption of service to Pyongyang was likely made with an eye to “future demand,” given expanding exchange between North Korea and China as their ties are mended in line with improving prospects for their bilateral. In fact, although Air China has operated its Beijing-Pyongyang route since 2008, the operating principle for the route has been vague, in contrast with routes in other regions that announce their schedule in advance in the summer and winter. A review of flights during the three years before service was suspended in Nov. 2017 shows that the number of weekly flights fluctuated between one and three, dropping to two from June to October of last year and down to just one in November. As the only Chinese airline that provides return service to North Korea, Air China also halted its Pyongyang service in Apr. 2017 temporarily, though it soon resumed service. By Kim Oi-hyun, Beijing correspondent Please direct comments or questions to [english@hani.co.kr]
