Effective 3 Mar 03, Korean Air (KE) is dropping ICN-SPN service, while Asiana (OZ) is halting ICN-GUM service.
Is 3/3/03 a particularly auspicious day for doing so? It looks like the two carriers have, at least implicitly if not in actual meetings, agreed to split the Marianas market. In light of the chaebol dominant in South Korea, one would think that antitrust law is much more lax than in the United States.
KE is a member of DL's Wings alliance, while OZ joins Star Alliance 1 Mar 03.
Korean Air leaves NMI (Wed., 26 Feb 03)
http://www.tribune.co.mp/archive.cfm...y=yes&ID=26411
<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">In an interview, the KAL Saipan Office disclosed that plans for the route's cancellation stemmed from the reconstruction program of the KAL Crisis Management team that has been studying the airline company's status.
"Today [yesterday] is the final meeting on the decision but right now, the schedule of the final flight out of Saipan is on March 3, 2003. The crisis management has been involved in this contingency plan and its recommendation included the pulling out of Korean Air's flight to the CNMI," the official explained.
He pointed out that KAL's crisis management team also recommended the reduction of flights to San Francisco, Honolulu, Chicago, and Amsterdam. The team also proposed that aircraft serving the Tokyo, Osaka, Hong Kong, and Taipei routes be changed to smaller planes.</font>
I will add the link for Asiana's pull-out from Guam (Saipan Tribune, Thur., 27 Feb 03), when it becomes available.