Air Koryo

Air Koryo (Korean: 고려항공; Hancha: 高麗航空; MR: Koryŏ Hanggong) is North Korea's flag carrier and only commercial airline. It is state-owned and controlled by the North Korean air force. Headquartered in Sunan-guyŏk, Pyongyang, it operates domestic and international routes – on a regular schedule only to Beijing, Shenyang, and Vladivostok – from its hub at Pyongyang's Sunan International Airport. It also operates flights on behalf of the North Korean government, with one of its aircraft serving as North Korean supreme leader Kim Jong Un's personal plane. Its small fleet consists of Ilyushin and Tupolev aircraft from the Soviet Union and Russia, and Antonovs from the Soviet Union and Ukraine.

Air Koryo's history can be traced to the founding of the Soviet–North Korean Airline (SOKAO) in 1950. Following the Korean War, in 1955, the airline was reorganized as Korean Airways and started domestic and international routes to other communist Eastern Bloc states in Asia and Europe. Another reorganization followed after the collapse of the Soviet Union, and in 1993, the airline adopted its current name, Air Koryo. Due to its aging fleet of Soviet aircraft and related safety and maintenance concerns, Air Koryo was banned in the European Union between 2006 and 2020, when it was allowed to resume operations into the EU with their newly acquired Tu-204 aircraft.

During the rule of Kim Jong Un, Air Koryo also started branching out into commercial sectors beyond aviation, such as ground transportation and consumer goods.

The COVID-19 pandemic caused Air Koryo to suspend regular operations, with no scheduled international flights between 2020 and 2023.

In early 1950, SOKAO (Soviet–Korean Airline, 소련-조선항공; 蘇聯-朝鮮航空; Soryŏn-Chosŏn Hanggong) was established as a joint North Korean-Soviet venture to connect Pyongyang with Moscow. Regular flights began that same year. Services were suspended during the Korean War, resuming in 1953 as Bureau of Civil Aviation Ministry of Transport of DPRK. The state airline was then placed under the control of the Civil Aviation Administration of Korea (CAAK) and re-branded Korean Airways (조선민항; 朝鮮民航; Chosŏn Minhang), starting operations on 21 September 1955 with Lisunov Li-2, Antonov An-2 and Ilyushin Il-12 aircraft. Ilyushin Il-14s and Ilyushin Il-18s were added to the fleet in the 1960s.

Jet operations commenced in 1975 when the first Tupolev Tu-154 was delivered for service from Pyongyang to Prague, East Berlin, and Moscow with refueling stops in Irkutsk and Novosibirsk, as the Tu-154 had insufficient range. Tu-134s and An-24s were also delivered to start domestic services. The Tu-154 fleet was increased at the start of the 1980s, while the first long-haul Ilyushin Il-62 was delivered back in 1979 (two of these aircraft are used in VIP configuration), allowing Korean Airways to offer a direct non-stop service to Moscow for the first time, as well as serving Sofia and Belgrade.

Alongside Soviet aircraft, North Korea also considered acquiring Concorde supersonic jets for Air Koryo under a plan by Kim Il Sung to boost the country's international prestige. North Korea and Aérospatiale and British Aerospace – Concorde's two European manufacturers – signed a preliminary purchase agreement with the country for two Concordes in 1979, but the deal never proceeded because of North Korea's economic challenges and Cold War tensions between East and West.

The end of the Cold War and the collapse of communism in Eastern Europe saw a vast reduction in the number of international services offered. Korean Airways re-branded as Air Koryo on 28 March 1992, and in 1993, ordered three Ilyushin Il-76 freight aircraft to carry cargo to and from its destinations in China and Russia.