Air Koryo

When spotters talk about “the one airline that’s still missing,” one name comes up surprisingly often: Air Koryo. North Korea’s state airline has only a handful of aircraft, hardly flies abroad and relies exclusively on types that have long since ended up in museums elsewhere. That is exactly what makes it a cult favorite. This page shows you what is behind Air Koryo, which aircraft you can expect and where a sighting is realistic at all.

Air Koryo at a glance

Air Koryo is North Korea’s state airline and the only airline in the country that offers regular scheduled flights. Its hub is Pyongyang Sunan Airport, about 25 kilometers north of the capital. Organizationally, the airline reports to North Korea’s state aviation administration.

The story begins in 1950 with SOKAO, a joint venture between the Soviet Union and North Korea to connect Pyongyang with Moscow. The Korean War interrupted operations. Afterward, the North Korean aviation authority took over, and in the mid-1950s the airline flew again under the name Chosŏn Minhang (Korean Airways). It has carried the name Air Koryo since the early 1990s – sources say 1992 in some places and 1993 in others.

Unlike South Korea’s Korean Air, Air Koryo belongs to no alliance and is barely integrated into international networks. Tickets for foreigners are mostly sold through specialized tour operators. For spotters, though, one thing matters most: outside North Korea, you can see this airline in only a very few places.

Codes and callsign

• IATA code JS: appears in the flight number, so on the departure board and on the ticket. One example is flight JS271 to Vladivostok.
• ICAO code KOR: appears in the air traffic control flight plan and on flight trackers.
• Callsign AIR KORYO: this is how the crew identifies itself on the radio.

The ICAO code KOR often misleads beginners because it sounds like South Korea. South Korean airlines use their own codes, though, Korean Air for example KAL. How IATA and ICAO codes work in general is explained in the article on IATA and ICAO codes.

The fleet: Tupolev, Ilyushin, Antonov

The fleet is the main reason for the cult status. There are no Western types: international sanctions make buying modern Airbus or Boeing jets practically impossible. For decades, Air Koryo has therefore flown Soviet models and taken on newer Russian and Ukrainian aircraft only occasionally.

According to the fleet overview on Wikipedia (as of August 2025), Air Koryo uses these aircraft for international flights:

Type	Number	Seats	Use	Spotter note
Tupolev Tu-204-100B	1	222	International routes	Twinjet, successor to the Tu-154
Tupolev Tu-204-300	1	142	International routes	Shortened version, delivered at the end of 2007
Tupolev Tu-154B	1	136	Vladivostok, among others	Three-engine jet with a T-tail, almost gone worldwide
Antonov An-148-100B	2	70	Regional and international flights	High-wing aircraft with engines under the wing
Ilyushin Il-62	2	VIP	Government flights	Four rear-mounted engines, one of them a state aircraft

The overview also lists older types whose current operating status is unconfirmed: several Antonov An-24s for domestic flights, the Ilyushin Il-18 P-835, freighters of the type Ilyushin Il-76 and the Tupolev Tu-134. The P-835 is considered the last Il-18 in passenger service worldwide. Because hardly anyone on the outside can reliably check which of these aircraft still fly, you should always treat such information as a snapshot.

Tu-204: the modern backbone

The Tupolev Tu-204 is the youngest jet in the fleet. At the end of 2007, Air Koryo took delivery of a Tu-204-300 in Ulyanovsk, and a Tu-204-100B followed in March 2010. The -300 is a shortened version with fewer seats. Both are twinjets with engines under the wings and at first glance resemble a Boeing 757 – one reason beginners often misidentify them from a distance. The manufacturer is Tupolev.

Tu-154: the three-engine jet

The Tupolev Tu-154 joined Air Koryo in 1975 and brought the first jet service to Prague, East Berlin and Moscow at the time, each with fuel stops. Today one Tu-154B is listed for international flights, including the route to Vladivostok. With three engines at the rear and a T-tail, it is unmistakable – and has almost disappeared from passenger service worldwide.

Il-62: the long-haul classic

Air Koryo received its first Ilyushin Il-62 in 1979; that made a nonstop flight to Moscow possible. Today two Il-62s in VIP configuration fly for the government, one of them Kim Jong-un’s state aircraft. Four engines in pairs at the rear, a long, slender fuselage and the high T-tail make it one of the most elegant sights in Soviet aviation.

An-148: the regional jet

The Antonov An-148 is a high-wing aircraft with two engines under the high-mounted wing. Air Koryo ordered two An-148s and one An-158 in 2013; today two An-148-100Bs are in service. For the 2014 Asian Games, Air Koryo even flew to Incheon in South Korea. You can find more about the manufacturer at Antonov.

How to recognize Air Koryo

The current livery is simple: white fuselage, gray belly and a thin red line in between. The fuselage carries the Korean name and the English titles “Air Koryo.” The North Korean flag is on the tail, with the registration below it. Older photos show an earlier white-and-gray livery with a stripe in the national colors. In 2024, the airline also changed its logo – a detail you can compare on newer shots.

The most reliable feature is the registration. North Korean aircraft carry the prefix P-, followed by three digits. The two Tu-204s with EU approval are P-632 and P-633. How registration prefixes are built in general is shown in the guide Understanding aircraft registrations.

Air Koryo and the EU Air Safety List

One chapter that keeps coming up with Air Koryo is the EU Air Safety List. After serious deficiencies found in ramp inspections in France and Germany, the EU put the airline on the list in 2006. How the list works in general is explained in the article on the EU Air Safety List. In 2010, Air Koryo received permission to fly into the EU again with the Tu-204. Currently the airline is in Annex B: it lists carriers that may fly into the EU only with certain aircraft – in Air Koryo’s case, exactly the two Tu-204s P-632 and P-633.

For spotters in Germany, this still doesn’t mean much. Air Koryo does not offer regular flights to Europe. The permission is more a theoretical option for special flights, not a chance for a sighting at your home airport.

Where you can spot Air Koryo

Because Air Koryo flies only to Beijing, Shenyang and Vladivostok on scheduled services, the chances outside North Korea concentrate on these three cities. Other destinations, such as in China or Russia, run only as charters or seasonally. During the pandemic, air traffic was suspended for a long time; flights to Beijing and Vladivostok resumed in 2023.

Beijing is the most important destination. Air China was also flying the Pyongyang route at times – check who is flying currently. When planning, pay attention to which Beijing airport the flight uses – the city has two large airports, Capital and Daxing. Shenyang in northeastern China is close to the border and is also part of the route network; whether and how often flights go there currently is something you should check separately. Vladivostok is the Russian destination; the Tu-154B was most recently used there.

Spotting in North Korea itself

Pyongyang Sunan Airport has two runways: 01/19 at 4,000 meters and 17/35 at 3,425 meters. The international Terminal 2 opened in July 2015, and a domestic terminal followed in early 2016. Free spotting like at a European airport does not exist there. Foreigners enter only in organized groups, and photography is strictly regulated. In the past, individual tour operators offered aviation trips in which groups could fly various types of the fleet on domestic routes aboard Air Koryo charter aircraft.

Whether and in what form such trips are currently possible depends on the political situation. Check the travel and safety advisories of the Federal Foreign Office (Germany’s foreign ministry) before any consideration, and read your operator’s rules carefully. For most spotters, the realistic option remains a sighting in Beijing, Shenyang or Vladivostok.

Why Air Koryo has cult status

The fascination has several reasons. First, the rarity: with only a few active aircraft and three scheduled destinations, Air Koryo is among the hardest airlines in the world to catch. How to put such a sighting in perspective is shown in the article How rare is my sighting?.

Second, the types. The Tu-154, Il-62 and Il-18 have almost disappeared from passenger service. If you know the history of these aircraft, you see in Air Koryo a flying archive of Soviet commercial aviation. The closest comparison is Cubana de Aviación, which also relied on Soviet models for a long time, or the former fleet of Aeroflot.

Third, the seclusion. There is little reliable information about Air Koryo, and every new photo helps the community document the fleet. Reports from 2017 even described the airline as an operator of gas stations and taxis as well as a maker of cigarettes and soft drinks – a sign of how differently the company is organized from a Western airline. You can find more tips for exotic destinations in the guide spotting rare aircraft.

Common mix-ups

• Mistaking KOR for Korean Air – the ICAO code KOR belongs to Air Koryo; Korean Air uses KAL.
• Mistaking the Tu-204 for a Boeing 757 – both are slender twinjets; the tail, engines and cockpit windows differ.
• Logging every Il-62 as scheduled service – Air Koryo’s two Il-62s fly in VIP configuration for the government.
• Reading old fleet lists as current – for the An-24, Il-18, Il-76 and Tu-134, the current status is uncertain.
• Treating the EU approval as a flight schedule – two Tu-204s may fly into the EU, but there are still no regular flights.
• Confusing Air Koryo with Air China – both flew the Beijing–Pyongyang route, but Air China with Western types.

Conclusion

Air Koryo is not an airline you run into by chance. It flies few routes with a small fleet of Tupolevs, Ilyushins and Antonovs – and that is exactly what makes it so appealing to spotters. If you keep the schedule, tracker and photo rules in the destination country in view, you can log one of the rarest sightings in commercial aviation in Beijing, Shenyang or Vladivostok.