North Korea: home to the world's worst airline, Air Koryo

Air Koryo is the best airline in North Korea...and also the ONLY airline in the country. However, many visitors to the country claim it is the worst airline experience they have ever had.

According to Skytrax ratings, this state-owned company has been dubbed the lowest-rated airline currently in service. Let’s find out why.

Based in Pyongyang's Sunan International Airport, Air Koryo currently own 21 airplanes that fly to six scheduled destinations including Beijing, Macau, and Vladivostok.

Of course, you wouldn’t tell that from looking at their official website. Which currently features no flights whatsoever.

Image: Air Koryo

Still, Air Koryo remains the main way to travel to North Korea.

This is no surprise as the air carrier was founded in the 1950s and saw its height during the Cold War, having flights to some of the most important cities of the People’s Republic of China and the Eastern bloc.

The fall of the Soviet Union brought dire consequences for North Korea, including its flagship aircraft company, which has never fully recovered.

Air Koryo’s fleet mainly comprises former Soviet aircraft that are no longer allowed to fly within the European Union airspace.

Some of Air Koryo's planes include an Ilyushin 62 P-885 designed in the 1960s, according to a Business Insider piece from 2011.

In fact, Air Koryo is so unsafe that it was added to the list of air carriers banned in the EU in March 2006, after the airline failed to address safety deficiencies that came up during ramp inspections.

Ultimately, the company was forced to acquire two Russian Tupolev Tu-204-300 to continue operating flights to Europe.

A 2016 piece in the Los Angeles Times goes into depth about why some have dubbed Air Koryo the worst airline in the world.

The LA newspaper cites reviews compiled by the website Skytrax, which has provided Air Koryo a one-star ranking several times throughout the years. This made the North Korean air carrier the lowest rated on the website.

Passengers cited a few peculiarities, such as the food consisting of lukewarm hamburgers with a “mystery meat”.

In-flight entertainment has been described as mostly consisting of patriotic songs and propaganda movies playing in a loop.

Skytrax has described Air Koryo as “a poor quality of product delivered across the assessment sectors, combining with low and/or inconsistent standards of front-line staff service.”

The one redeeming feature of North Korea’s air carrier is the staff, which has been described as courteous but distant.

Good or bad, one can’t deny a thing. Traveling on Air Koryo will definitely be an experience to remember.