Air Koryo

Air Koryo is best known as North Korea’s state airline, and by our assessment it is the rare carrier that people usually think of through its country and its brand rather than through route convenience. Its strength is identity: the airline is unmistakably tied to one national system, which gives it a clear place in the aviation map. The downside is the same thing, because a state carrier with a narrow international profile is not a broad alternative to major global airlines. In practice it is less about choice and more about a very specific travel network. It sits in a category of its own, far from the big network carriers and the low-cost crowd, with Pyongyang as the obvious center of gravity.