American Airlines has started its first ever flight from Dallas / Fort Worth to Seoul, Korea and this is a bit of a big deal for the airline as it represents a completely new destination for the airline as opposed to a return to service.

Curiously, Dallas airline Braniff International offered service from Los Angeles to Seoul using its new 747-SP aircraft in the late 1970’s.  It was not possible to fly from DFW to Seoul non-stop at that time as even the long range 747 didn’t have quite the range necessary for such a flight.  It’s even more notable that Braniff failed on that route in a very bad way.

Load factors on those flights served to quicken the airline’s problems leading to bankruptcy.  At that time, South Korea was still governed primarily by the military and it was highly nationalistic in protecting its own airline, Korean Air Lines.  So the route award to Braniff was made to be very problematic for Braniff to operate an attractive flight to Seoul.

Had that flight been introduced 10 years later or 10 years and from DFW, it likely would have succeeded.  The ties between Korea and Dallas are signicant both in terms of residents of the DFW Area as well as in the telecom/electronics industries.

American Airlines should have every opportunity to succeed with this route and we applaud its development as it signals a desire to improve revenues and expand on opportunities to Asia from non-West Coast cities.

Filed under: Airline News by ajax
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