Korean Air Marks 50th Anniversary Under a Cloud
05 October, 2019
Korean Air celebrated the 50th anniversary of its first international flight on Wednesday under a cloud of recent scandals.
Founded on March 1, 1969, Korean Air flew its first international route from Seoul to Saigon on Oct. 2 the same year.
On Wednesday the airline handed out jubilee gifts and cookies to passengers before the departure of KE683 from Incheon to what is now Ho Chi Minh City. The airline also played a special video onboard including news footage which was screened during the inaugural flight in 1969.
Korean Air flight attendants in past and current uniforms parade down the aisle before departure to Ho Chi Minh City on Wednesday. /Yonhap
Flight attendants wearing the 11 uniforms they have sported over the decades welcomed passengers. Cabin crew will work in past and current uniforms on major flights to Beijing, Ho Chi Minh, Hong Kong, Los Angeles, Paris, Singapore, Sydney and Tokyo until Nov. 6.
In 1969, Korean Air only operated three international routes between Seoul and Osaka, Busan and Fukuoka and Seoul and Tokyo. It currently serves 111 foreign cities in 43 countries but is losing ground to budget airlines and reputation to the owner family's multiple crimes and misdemeanors.
Longtime chairman Cho Yang-ho died this April just days after he had been ousted for mismanagement in an unprecedented shareholder coup but passed the baton to his equally unsavory family.
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