Chairman Park Sam-koo of Kumho-Asiana Group.

Kumho-Asiana Group has been looking for new markets to give the sluggish Asiana Airlines a boost.

The air carrier, one of Kumho-Asiana Group’s major affiliates, has been exploring new air routes, importing new equipment and securing a large number of new customers to make its operation more competitive amid a competitive industry that is growing more intensive with the growth of low-cost air carriers. 

The airline dispatched a number of marketing teams to China this year to promote Korea as a destination for large conferences (MICE), business meetings, conventions, exhibitions and expos. In early May, they brought some 4,800 Chinese people engaged in the medical businesses to their conference in Seoul. They came from all over China, including Beijing, Shanghai, Qingdao and Guangzhou, totaling 11 cities, and spent four nights and five days in Seoul. They attended the conference and went sightseeing in and around Seoul. The airline had to fly big planes to shuttle them to and from China, including smaller cities where smaller planes used to fly.

In January, they attracted 1,300 employees of MacDonald’s in China to travel to Korea for meetings and sightseeing tours, which was followed by some 2,000 employees of Ioh Group in China coming to Korea for meetings and for sightseeing. The trips are seen as strengthening Asiana Airlines’s position as an airline that specializes in MICE tourism in Korea in the eyes of Chinese tourists.

Asiana also expanded its international flight routes. The air carrier will launch seven weekly flights to Sapporo, Japan, from Incheon from this month with the Japanese city in Hokkaido, known for its winter snow festivals and other festivals near the city. The airline also will launch non-regular flights to Budapest, Hungary, from July to diversify its routes to offer its passengers more diverse destinations for their travels. The airline will operate chartered flights once weekly from Incheon to Budapest from July 1 to Aug. 26.

The Hungarian capital, known as the Pearl of the Danube River, is on the list of UNESCO World Cultural Heritage sites.

The air carrier also plans to import six new A380 passenger planes from 2014 to 2016 to give more comfort to the passengers as the new plane is nicknamed “the Hotel in the Sky.” They will be deployed to fly the Incheon-New York and Incheon-Los Angeles routes, two key routes for the airline, and the Incheon-Frankfurt, Germany route to boost the competitiveness of the airline.

“We will expand our presence in China by connecting Korea with cities in western Chinese provinces,” Asiana officials said. “We will attract new visitors from China's inland areas, and serve Korean tourists seeking to go to relatively unknown destinations in the most populous country.”

Asiana provides the most services to China with 31 flights traveling to 22 destinations. The company has introduced customized tours for Chinese tourists, including a tour of Korea's information technology sites and a travel package for beauty treatments.

They also believe the number of Japanese visitors will rebound at a gradual pace in the coming months. Kumho Asiana Group, together with its subsidiaries, engages in construction, tire, aviation, land transportation, leisure and IT businesses in South Korea. 

It operates bus lines in Korea; operates terminals, including U-square; manufactures and imports tires worldwide; develops various infrastructure projects, including housing, civil engineering, construction, and SOC in Southeast Asia and the Middle East; operates airlines in Korea; constructs and operates information integration systems in the areas of aviation, construction, manufacturing, logistics, finance, and leisure; and operates resorts, water parks, and golf fields in Korea and China. 

The company also operates short and middle range international lines, including Japan, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and the Philippines; provides airport services, including ground, freight, and fueling works; develops and operates an online flight reservation system in Korea; and constructs, maintains, supervises, and rents air cargo terminals in the Incheon International Airport.

A new jet passenger plane that flies Asiana Airlines international routes.(Photos: Kumho-Asiana)