Summary Korean Air leads flights between South Korea and the US, servicing major cities nationwide. Asiana Airlines will merge with Korean Air, further enhancing flights between Seoul and select US cities. Delta Air is the only US carrier among the top five, partnering with Korean Air for an extensive route network.
South Korea is emerging as a popular tourist destination; while the country's most popular visitors are from China and Japan , the United States is an increasingly growing market, and several carriers serve the US-South Korean market. While most international flights operate to and from Seoul's main transit hub, Incheon International Airport (ICN), a number are also available from Seoul–Gimpo International Airport (GMP). However, these are currently limited to other Asian destinations.
A growing market Unsurprisingly, the most popular routes to and from South Korea to the United States are predominantly to the West Coast destinations of Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Seattle. However, a robust market also connects Seoul to the Hawaiian Islands, with Honolulu seeing all South Korea—Hawaii traffic. While Hawaiian Airlines serves the Honolulu to Seoul route, it doesn't serve the route enough to reach the top five.
With support from data from Cirium, an online aviation analytics company, Simple Flying decided to investigate the data to determine the most popular airlines serving this market; let's look at the top five. Data is based on services in both directions.