Air Koryo is the national airline in North Korea and is based in Sunan-guyŏk, Phenian. It has a fleet of 30 of Russian aircraft, many of them old or very old. Most of the flights are domestic, but have connections with Russia, China Asia and partly Europe.
There are information and myths that have ranked this company in the lowest rank in the airlines industry. The North Korean airline is the only one in the world rated as one star by British consulting company SkyTrax. There are passengers who traveled with Air Koryo and described the flight experience as extremely strange. According to Business Insider, they mentioned that the flight attendants are indifferent, and there are propaganda publications and national music on board. As for the food received on the plane, it was classified as "almost inedible".
I did not fly with this operator and I do not think I want to, not now! But Caesar says that certain things are exaggerated. Now I cannot speak, but I tend to believe those who say that the situation is not really pink.
But we also have some certainties. Air Koryo has a ban on flying into EU space due to obsolete fleet and safety concerns that the North Korean operator has not shown signs of remedying. These decisions were made following ground checks in France and Germany, many problems being identified in the SAFA program (DGAC / F 2000-2010). In the future, Air Koryo wants a re-analysis and even hopes to get approval to fly to destinations in Europe. From the information in the press, it appears that leader Kim Jong-un has traveled with one of the state operator's aircraft and ordered the country to "conform to international standards".
Air Koryo wants to refresh the fleet and has in command 9 Russian aircraft - Ilyushin Il-96 and Tupolev Tu-204 (which have already been ordered) and Suhoi Superjet 100. And this year, the North Korean carrier also launched Air Koryo online reservations. For starters you can make reservations for three routes: Pyongyang Shengyang, Pyongyang-Beijing and Pyongyang Vladivostok (all routes being accessible in both directions). The problem is that it doesn't work very well.
Anyway, this is a big step for this operator! Maybe over time things will change for the better. I want to see the airlines grow and I don't like to write about less enjoyable things!