North Korea is one of the most closed countries. That is why Air Corio is one of the rare connections it has with the outside world. This North Korean airline has been holding the title of the worst airline in the world for a long time.
On Skytrack, the website where users leave comments and impressions after the trip, there is only one one-star company, and that is Air Corjou.
Enthusiasts gathered in the group “Just Plains” decided to record their experience of traveling with the worst passenger airline in the world.
Air Corjo is a company founded at the end of 1955, and all the planes of its fleet were produced in the former Soviet Union. They fly on several routes within North Korea and have only four destinations abroad. Three destinations are in China: Shanghai, Beijing and Shenyang, while the fourth is in Russia and it is their Siberian port of Vladivostok.
All passengers must receive the latest edition of the Pyongyang Times before takeoff. It is a weekly in French and English intended for foreign visitors to North Korea, Business Insider writes. The Pyongyang Times is a propaganda press and North Korean dictator Kim Jong-Un is a frequent guest on its covers.
Safety warnings are a regular occurrence on all air travel. According to one passenger, even in 2014, they released recordings praising the great leader Kim Jong-Il, even though he died three years earlier.
Stewardesses used to wear bright red uniforms to match their clothes with the red fields on the North Korean flag. Today, that has changed, and they have somewhat more modern uniforms in blue.
Passengers are forbidden to record everything that happens on the planes themselves, but some of them still dare to violate North Korean laws. Throughout the summer, passengers are shown propaganda footage instead of movies.
“Stewardesses would rather fix their make-up than pay attention to the passengers, but I even preferred to watch them rather than the desperate propaganda they let us in during the summer,” a slightly disappointed passenger wrote on Startrex.
Despite everything, Air Corjo has some positive sides, at least judging by the statements of individual passengers. Flights are never late and there are never too many passengers. There have been no fatal accidents since 1983 (or at least they have not been made public).
Only two companies fly to North Korea. One is the aforementioned Air Corio, and the other is the Chinese national airline Air China. In the past, Russian Aeroflot also transported passengers from Kabarovsk, but a few years ago, this company also gave up.
