Korean Air Adds Freighters to Trans-Pacific, Europe Services

Korean Air said it will strengthen its cargo operations on a trans-Pacific and a North Europe service by adding a new freighter to each.

The company will deploy a 47-8 freighter on its route serving Osaka and Narita, Japan, Los Angeles and San Francisco, while another 777 freighter will be deployed on service to London, Vienna and Frankfurt. The carrier, which expects the new planes to generate fuel savings, saw sluggish cargo demand drag down profits last year.

The world’s second largest international cargo carrier after Cathay Pacific said traffic slumped 6.7 percent year-on-year in the last three months of 2011. For the year Korean Air posted a $87 million loss, compared with a net profit of $418.6 million a year earlier.

In 2012 the airline plans to explore new cargo markets and is looking to build a cargo network in Latin America using Brazil as a hub.

-- Contact Mike King at michael@borderline.eu.com