Not many Westerners get to visit North Korea, and it's a good bet most don't realize the secluded country has its own airline.
The airline, Air Koryo, is the only airline in the world deemed bad enough to earn a 1-star rating from leading airline reviewer SkyTrax.
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Why? Customers cited the strange experience on the flights, which include cordial but distant attendants, propaganda newspapers and state-approved music. There's also the food, which looks nearly inedible.
Nonetheless, the airline hasn't had any safety problems in years, and it functions quite well. While it is banned from flying in European Union air space, Air Koryo has regular international flights to Moscow, Vladivostok, Kuala Lumpur, Singapore, and even Kuwait, according to the International Business Times.
And for tourists heading into the country to see it with their own eyes, Air Koryo is one of the few airlines that actually goes to Pyongyang. Its fleet of Russian-made planes fly out of Sunan International Airport in Pyongyang.
Mark F., a biomedical engineer from Australia, flew to Pyongyang on the notorious airline in August 2011 and put up some pictures on Flickr. Here's what he, and a few others who decided to whip out their cameras while on other flights into the closed nation, saw on their trips.
Air Koryo has 1-star general ratings almost across the board from Skytrax. The in-flight magazine is halfway decent, apparently.
This is an Air Koryo Ilyushin Il-62 P-885, a version of the Il-62 that was originally designed in the 1960s.
Air Koryo also flies two Ukrainian-Russian An-148s; the first arrived in its fleet last month.
[Source: Interfax-Ukraine]
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