Government minders stand before an Air Koryo aircraft on the apron at Pyongyang airport on July 29, 2013. Ed Jones, AFP/Getty Images Fullscreen A North Korean Air Koryo attendant wears a pin showing portraits of the late North Korean leaders Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il as she prepares the cabin before take off from Pyongyang on April 11, 2013. Alexander F. Yuan, AP Fullscreen A woman reads a newspaper displaying a series of photos of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un aboard an Air Koryo flight from Pyongyang, North Korea, bound for Beijing on Aug. 24, 2015. Dita Alangkara, AP Fullscreen North Korean officials wave at foreign visitors from the apron next to an Air Koryo jet at Pyongyang apron no Feb. 27, 2008. David Guttenfelder, AP Fullscreen Air Koryo plane sits on the apron in front of the new Pyongyang International Airport terminal building on June 27, 2015. Wong Maye-E, AP Fullscreen An Air Koryo attendant offers North Korean newspapers and magazines before take off for Pyongyang on April 11, 2013. Alexander F. Yuan, AP Fullscreen Passengers walk past an Air Koryo plane at the Pyongyang International Airport terminal on June 20, 2015. Wong Maye-E, AP Fullscreen The shadow of an Air Koryo plane is cast over fields shortly after take-off from the Pyongyang International Airport on June 27, 2015. Wong Maye-E, AP Fullscreen A North Korean Air Koryo flight attendant peeks out from the aircraft door as former NBA basketball player Vin Baker arrives at at the Pyongyang airport on Jan. 6, 2014. Kim Kwang Hyon, AP Fullscreen Passengers board an Air Koryo plane at the Pyongyang International Airport on June 27, 2015. Wong Maye-E, AP Fullscreen Former NBA basketball star Dennis Rodman disembarks from a North Korean Air Koryo flight from Beijing as he and his entourage arrive at the international airport in Pyongyang on Dec. 19, 2013. Fullscreen Reelected in the airport building glass, fliers disembark from an Air Koryo flight at the Pyongyang International Airport on April 9, 2013. David Guttenfelder, AP Fullscreen Like this topic? You may also like these photo galleries: Replay Autoplay Show Thumbnails Show Captions Last Slide Next Slide Government minders stand before an Air Koryo aircraft on the apron at Pyongyang airport on July 29, 2013. (Photo: Ed Jones, AFP/Getty Images)
Tags Kim Jong-un RW CONNECT TWEET LINKEDIN COMMENT EMAIL MORE PYONGYANG, North Korea (AP) — If an Air Koryo passenger ignores its no-photography rule, a flight attendant might take the camera and delete the pictures herself. Crumpling up a newspaper bearing the image of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un can earn travelers a stern lecture, or worse.
Those are among many quirks that may help explain why North Korea's airline has earned a singular distinction: It's been ranked the world's worst airline for four straight years.
Air Koryo is the only carrier to have been awarded just one star in rankings released recently by the UK-based SkyTrax consultancy agency. More than 180 airlines are included in the five-star ranking system, which is considered by some to be the global benchmark of airline standards.
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Some experts and frequent Air Koryo passengers disagree with the "world's worst" title. The airline is a definitely a unique ride, but fairly reliable, they say. The SkyTrax ratings are focused on service and not safety.
"It's a bit of a giggle, actually. They are clearly not the world's worst airline," said Simon Cockerell, of the Koryo Group, a Beijing-based travel agency that specializes in North Korea. The agency has no relation to Air Koryo, though Cockerell and his tourists often fly on the airline.
Cockerell said Air Koryo's weaknesses tend to be the kind of thing SkyTrax focuses on: cabin attendants tend not to speak foreign languages very well, there is no in-flight magazine, the meals aren't going to win any awards and, on older planes, condensation from the cooling systems tends to dampen seats and drip on passengers.
"It's not Emirates," he said, referring to Dubai's Emirates Airlines, a four-star according to SkyTrax. "It's not quite the flying experience people are used to."
In-flight entertainment is usually limited to the popular Moranbong Band girl group singing patriotic odes to the leader. Or North Korean cartoons, shown on drop-down screens attached to the cabin ceilings. On the less than two-hour hop from Beijing, there is a meal of sorts. It resembles a hamburger.
But Air Koryo isn't what it used to be.
Its four-plane fleet of aircraft used on international flights is surprisingly new — acquired in 2008. Lax practices, like not announcing when the plane was about to land or skipping the safety demonstrations before takeoff, were fixed long ago. The new airport terminal, a vast improvement over the temporary, warehouse-like building used until recently, provides travelers with a business-class lounge.
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This undated picture released from North Korea's official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) on July 1, 2015, shows a general view of the new terminal at Pyongyang International Airport. AFP Photo/KCNA via KNS Fullscreen Staff members walk along the completed interiors of the new international airport terminal building at Pyongyang airport on July 1, 2015, in Pyongyang, North Korea. The unveiling Wednesday underscores an effort to attract more tourists and to spruce up the country ahead of the celebration of a major anniversary of the founding of its ruling Worker's Party in October this year. Kim Kwang Hyon, AP Fullscreen This undated picture released from North Korea's official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) on July 1, 2015 shows a lounge in the new terminal at Pyongyang International Airport in the North Korean capital. AFP Photo/KCNA via KNS Fullscreen An information board stands in the arrival hall of the new international airport terminal building at Pyongyang airport on July 1, 2015. Kim Kwang Hyon, AP Fullscreen Staff wait at the check-in counters of the new international airport terminal building at Pyongyang airport on July 1, 2015. Kim Kwang Hyon, AP Fullscreen This undated picture released from North Korea's official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) on July 1, 2015, shows a restaurant in the new terminal at Pyongyang International Airport. AFP Photo/KCNA via KNS Fullscreen In this photo from Aug. 24, 2015 photo, computers without keyboards are seen at an Internet corner at the airport in Pyongyang, North Korea. The new airport building has just about everything including the Internet room. The problem is, the Internet doesn't seem to work. Dita Alangkara, AP Fullscreen This undated picture released from North Korea's official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) on July 1, 2015, shows a general view of the new terminal at Pyongyang International Airport. AFP Photo/KCNA via KNS Fullscreen This picture taken by North Korea's official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) on July 1, 2015, shows the opening ceremony for the new airport terminal for Pyongyang International Airport. AFP Photo/KCNA via KNS Fullscreen This picture taken and released from North Korea's official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) on June 25, 2015 shows North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un (center) inspecting the new terminal at Pyongyang International Airport. AFP Photo/KCNA via KNS Fullscreen This picture taken and released from North Korea's official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) on June 25, 2015 shows North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un (right), accompanied by his wife Ri Sol-Ju, inspecting the new terminal at Pyongyang International Airport. AFP Photo/KCNA via KNS Fullscreen This picture taken and released from North Korea's official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) on June 25, 2015 shows North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un (right), accompanied by his wife Ri Sol-Ju, inspecting the new terminal at Pyongyang International Airport. AFP Photo/KCNA via KNS Fullscreen This picture taken and released from North Korea's official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) on June 25, 2015 shows North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un (front) inspecting the new terminal at Pyongyang International Airport . AFP Photo/KCNA via KNS Fullscreen Like this topic? You may also like these photo galleries: Replay Autoplay Show Thumbnails Show Captions Last Slide Next Slide At the same time, being the flag-carrier of a nation shunned by much of the West cannot be good for an airline's image. Air Koryo's only regular international destinations are Beijing, Shanghai and Shenyang in China and the Russian port of Vladivostok.
"I'm not sure that I've ever seen or heard any references to Air Koryo being unsafe, only that its service is terrible," Patrick Smith, an airline pilot and author of the Ask The Pilot blog , said in an email to The Associated Press before the latest ratings came out.
"Everything about North Korea is seen as a kind of running joke, so we should probably expect that its airline is seen this way too, right or wrong," he said, with the caveat that he has never actually flown on Air Koryo. "Some of the world's best and safest airlines are carriers the average American has never heard of."
Smith noted that Air Koryo's fleet is mainly Russian TU-204s and AN-148s, which may not be as comfortable or efficient as their American or European-built counterparts, but are not unsound.
In fact, getting its passengers where they are going — in one piece — might be Air Koryo's strong point.
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The only known fatal accident it suffered was in 1983 when the airline was still named CAAK, according to Harro Ranter, founder and director of the Aviation Safety Network, a private, independent foundation that has compiled detailed descriptions of over 10,700 incidents, hijackings and accidents going back to the 1950s.
Ranter cautioned that 32 years without a fatal accident does not necessarily mean an airline is safe.
"A big factor in the safety of an airline is the country's ability to conduct proper safety oversight, the level of implementation of international aviation standards and regulations," he said in an email to the AP. "It's very hard to rank airlines based on safety. The worldwide level of air safety has improved significantly over the years, so any comparison on the number of accidents or fatalities is impossible."
Still, he noted North Korea scored above the world average on most aspects in an audit of the level of implementation of international aviation standards and regulations conducted by the International Civil Aviation Organization in 2008, the most recent data available.
"If these results are still valid, there is no reason to assume that Air Koryo would be unsafe," he said.
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