Air Koryo: What We Really Know About Flights on North Korea's Only Airline

History and positioning

As an absolute state monopoly, Air Koryo does not compete with any other carrier in its domestic market: it carries state officials, diplomats and the rare tourist groups authorized to enter the country, as well as a limited volume of connections with China and Russia. There is no way to buy a ticket independently through the usual online channels.

The fleet

The fleet remains a flying museum of Soviet aviation: Ilyushin Il-62 and Il-76, Tupolev Tu-134 and Tu-154, plus a few older Antonovs, with an estimated average age of around thirty years and some aircraft still in service that are over forty. The only recent exception is a Tupolev Tu-204-300 delivered in 2008, the first newly built aircraft acquired by the airline in decades.

Routes and network

The most regular international connection remains Pyongyang-Beijing, joined at times by charter or seasonal flights to Vladivostok and Shenyang. Domestic connections within the country remain marginal and effectively inaccessible to foreign visitors outside specific organized tourist programs.

On board and service

There is no loyalty program, nor a booking website in the traditional sense of the term: those who fly with Air Koryo almost always do so through an agency specializing in travel to North Korea, which handles ticket and visa as a single package.

What passengers say

• Air Koryo is the only airline in the world to have held, for years, the minimum one-star rating on Skytrax, a rating tied more to the absence of industry-standard services than to genuine flight safety problems.
• The few public accounts available almost always come from aviation enthusiasts or niche tourists, rather than from a broad pool of independent reviews as with traditional commercial carriers.

Air Koryo is of interest almost exclusively to aviation enthusiasts and travelers already committed to an organized tour of North Korea, not to those looking for a flight they can book on their own. It is not viable for any other type of trip.

If you are planning to enter North Korea, the flight must always be booked through an authorized agency that also handles the visa: trying to buy a ticket directly through the usual channels is simply not an option.