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Panorama view of Asiana Airlines headquarters. (Photo = Asiana Airlines) |
[Alpha Biz= Kim Jisun] Asiana Airlines is launching a dedicated mileage-only flight for its U.S. routes, marking the first time the airline has deployed such a flight on its popular U.S. routes.
On Thursday Asiana Airlines announced that it plans to operate mileage-only flights on its Incheon–Los Angeles (LA) and Incheon–New York routes starting in April. The dedicated flights will operate six times, with the LA route in April and May, and the New York route in June.
The airline has decided to allocate all 1,870 remaining seats, excluding those already sold, as mileage seats. Typically, airlines offer about 5% of their total seats as mileage seats, but in this case, about 63% of the seats on these dedicated flights will be available for mileage redemption. To accommodate this, Asiana Airlines will deploy the Airbus A380, a super-sized aircraft with 495 seats, on these routes, allowing more customers to use their miles. Remaining seats will be available for purchase for a fee starting from the 20th of the month.
For U.S. route mileage tickets, the mileage required for a one-way economy class ticket in the off-season is 35,000 miles, and for business class, it is 62,500 miles. During peak season, an additional 50% of mileage is required.
Ahead of the merger between Korean Air and Asiana Airlines at the end of next year, Asiana Airlines is offering various incentives to encourage the use of its mileage program, which currently has a lower market value than Korean Air's. This is part of an effort to reduce any complications when determining the mileage exchange rate after the merger.
Since December of last year, Asiana Airlines has supplied about 38,000 seats as mileage seats through the "Jeju Happy Mileage Week" promotion, which was held four times. Additionally, the airline has been selling various products, including small gift cards, household goods, and accommodations, through its mileage shopping mall, OZ Mile Shop. As a result, Asiana's mileage liability decreased by about 2%, from 981.4 billion won in the third quarter of last year to 960.8 billion won by the end of last year. The figure is expected to have decreased further in the first half of this year due to the increased number of promotions.
Korean Air must submit the mileage merger ratio with Asiana Airlines to the Korea Fair Trade Commission in the first half of this year.
AlphaBIZ Kim Jisun(stockmk2020@alphabiz.co.kr)
