As skies open up post-pandemic, 2023 sees Korean Air focus on the resumption of temporarily suspended routes. Exploring new routes will be their next main objective once all suspended routes are fully functional. The airline contemplates increasing its seat capacity on the Incheon -New Delhi route and simultaneously exploring new opportunities in South India. Kim Chan, General Manager, Korean Air, India, and Bangladesh is excited about the recommencement of their services in India, as the airline takes the Indian market with extreme earnestness. He calls upon Indians to visit and experience the beauty of Korea, winged with the efficient services of Korean Air.
– Sonika Bohra
From an economic perspective, the main focus of Korean Air remains the revival of inbound (Korea to India) traffic. Since resuming operations in India, the airline has been applying various measures to bring around inbound traffic to pre-COVID levels. However, the same is yet to reach the desired level and remains a challenge and primary focal point.
“Our outbound load factor is very good and promising, yet the challenge remains with the inbound. I think, as with Korean Air, almost all carriers today are facing similar issues on long-haul routes except for US and Canada. Short-haul destinations are emerging as more preferred over long-haul, post-pandemic. Since the flying time between Korea and India is around 8 hours, promoting Korea to the Indian market, as a result, is significantly challenging,” elucidates Kim.
At Korean Air, the safety and service of its passengers have always been and shall remain the primary focus. Korean Air is globally renowned for its deliverance of excellent service and on-time operations. The MCT (Minimum Connecting Time) required at Incheon Airport is a bare minimum of 45 minutes. On-time operation is an integral and very critical part of the functioning of the airline. Instances of passenger misconnection owing to late arrival of the aircraft are an utmost rare phenomenon. Korean Air operates from Terminal 2, a newly built state-of-art terminal at Incheon Airport. This terminal is currently being used by Korean Air and six other airlines. Hence, passenger handling services like immigration, customs, baggage arrival, etc are extremely speedy and hassle-free. The airfare of Korean Air is in accord with the standard market rates and remains at par with their major competitors.
In keeping with the competitive market in air travel, it is imperative to retain frequent flyers. The main target customer of Korean Air is the segment of corporate travellers and the airline has successfully positioned itself as one of the market leaders in this segment. “To attract more frequent flyers, we are considering doing joint marketing with credit card companies and OTAs. We are also offering special fares and incentives to Indian corporates. For Small and Medium Enterprises, we have a special program called KALBIZ. By registering at KALBIZ, the SMEs can accumulate points which can be later redeemed for purchasing of excess baggage, lounge, upgrade, etc.,” notifies Kim.
It is prudent to state that immediate response to customer complaints enhances customer satisfaction and builds strong customer bonding and loyalty. Korean Air’s Global Call Centre operates 24X7 to listen to and resolve the grievances of their customers and travel partners. Kim adds, “We offer tele-customers services in Hindi, English, Korean, Chinese, and Japanese on toll-free lines. Our call centre executives are specially trained to resolve customer grievances over the phone. However, there are certain issues that may remain unresolved over the phone, and in such instances, we encourage the customers to write on the VOC (Voice of Customer) portal. We have a separate department in Seoul that exclusively looks after our customer’s written grievances. Once anyone writes a VOC, we are bound to resolve the issue within 3 days. In case the VOC is not resolved within the stipulated period of 3 days, it automatically goes to the higher management, and the higher management personally gets involved in settling the issue. The VOC is a very successful system that has helped our millions of customers worldwide.”
Korean Air is committed to returning profit to civil society, contributing to communities, and promoting transparent corporate governance for sustainable growth. Striving to minimize greenhouse gas emissions by transitioning to eco-friendly and high-efficiency aircraft is an essential step towards responsible environment-friendly co-existence. In an attempt to improve the fuel management process, the airline has signed MoU with various research organizations for the development of sustainable aviation fuel. Korean Air is implementing a policy of reduce-reuse-recycle across all its offices.
Addressing the exciting phase that the aviation industry in India is witnessing in recent times, Kim mentions, “Privatisation of Air India is the most significant event that has shaped the aviation industry in post-pandemic India. This in itself has gone a long way to reinvigorate the aviation industry. Air India is now diligently creating more demand for air travel in India and for a country the size of India, there is enough space for international airlines to take advantage of this booming air travel demand. The thriving middle class of India is always on the look for new destinations and I anticipate Korea to be a perfect example of becoming the next Dubai or Singapore for Indian travellers.”
