Korean Air has reported that it achieved its best year for revenue in 2018 but income suffered due to higher fuels costs and the strong won against the US dollar.
The carrier announced in a regulatory filing on yesterday (29 January) that operating profit in 2018 plunged 27.6 per cent from a year ago to 692.4 billion won ($619.5 million) leading to a net loss of 80.3 billion won from a net profit of 907.9 billion won in the previous year.
This performance came despite a largest-ever revenue of 12.65 trillion won, up 7.2 per cent compared to 2017, driven by strong overseas travel demand, a rise in ticket sales and strong freight performance after a climb in shipments of semiconductors.
Last May, Korean Air launched a new non-stop service between Boston and Seoul which will start on 12 April in cooperation with joint venture (JV) partner, Delta Air Lines.
The new Boston flight, along with new Minneapolis/St. Paul-Seoul service that Delta is launching in 2019, are the first additions to the JV’s Seoul-Incheon network since the two carriers launched their partnership in May.
