Korean Air's Passenger Traffic in November 2005 Grows by 7.9% yoy

Korean Air carried 1.78 million passengers last month, up 7.9% year on year.

Revenue Passenger Kilometer (RPK) - distance flown by paying passengers - rose 6.8% year on year in November to 3.77 billion RPK, compared to 3.53 billion RPK a year ago.

Available Seat Kilometer (ASK) - the unit calculating passenger capacity - grew 9.8% year on year last month, to 5.59 billion ASK. Load factor decreased 1.9 percentage points due to the increased capacity.

"Passenger traffic, despite the steady growth throughout the year, was somewhat slowed down in November, showing varying degrees of growth rates from route to route," said Mr. Jong Hee Lee, the president and COO of Korean Air.

With more weekend leisure travelers, RPK of domestic routes jumped 15% year on year to 320.6 million RPK last month, with load factor increasing by 4.4 percentage point.

Load factors for international routes decreased 2.5 percentage points as RPK increased 6.1% to 3.45 billion RPK. The passenger traffic between Korea and the Americas was up 14.4% to 1.4 billion RPK and China was down 11.1% year on year to 175.6 million RPK.

Cargo operations, characterized by a gradual recovery, reported an improved load factor of 1.9 percentage point to 77.2%. The airline carried 176,895 tonnes of cargo last month, up 1% year on year.

Freight tonne kilometer (FTK) dropped only 0.4% year on year to 733.1 million FTK, on a 2.9% reduction in available freight tonne kilometer (AFTK) - the unit measuring cargo capacity.

Cargo traffic for China grew 52.2% year on year to 33.1 million FTKs, thanks to the strong export of mobile phones and other hi-tech products. FTKs for Europe also increased a comparative 9.4% to 242.1 million FTKs with French wines, mobile phones and LCD monitors carried to and from the continent.

According to its 2006 business plan, Korean Air plans to generate 8.3 trillion won in operating revenue, 560 billion won in operating profit and 180 billion won in recurring profit.

The business plan, which was approved by the airline's board on 22 December, aims to increase ASK by 2.7%, RPK by 4.8%, AFTK by 6.6% and FTK by 8.1%. To do so, it plans to invest 880 billion won in aircraft and facilities and it will take delivery of three new aircraft next year.

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