South Korean carrier Air Premia to challenge Korean Air monopoly on Washington Dulles route starting April

Small airline’s entry marks first competition on Seoul-DC route, offering 154,000 annual passengers new travel option.

South Korean carrier Air Premia will launch four-weekly flights between Seoul Incheon International Airport and Washington Dulles International Airport starting April 24, breaking Korean Air’s monopoly on the route for the first time, according to booking data from Aeroroutes.

The new service will introduce competition to a market that carried 124,000 round-trip passengers in the 12 months through September 2025, according to industry data. When all Washington-area airports are combined, Seoul traffic totaled 154,000 passengers during that period.

Air Premia describes itself as a hybrid operator. The carrier will operate the route with Boeing 787-9 aircraft, avoiding Russian airspace on a routing that requires up to 15 hours and 25 minutes westbound — making it the airline’s longest U.S. connection. Eastbound flights are scheduled at 13 hours and 45 minutes.

The service will run on Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays, with departures from Seoul at 10:05 a.m. local time and returns from Dulles at 1:20 p.m. local time, based on the first week of operations.

Air Premia operates eight 787-9s that average 7.4 years in age, according to ch-aviation data. A ninth aircraft, formerly operated by Korean Air, is expected to join the fleet shortly. The carrier’s jets feature various configurations ranging from 309 to 344 seats, and different layouts are used on U.S. routes, according to Flightradar24.

The airline faces significant challenges operating without network connectivity to provide feeder traffic, relying solely on point-to-point passengers. This business model has proven difficult for long-haul operators, with carriers like Norse Atlantic struggling under similar conditions.

Air Premia began U.S. operations in 2022 with Los Angeles service, followed by Newark and San Francisco in 2023, and Honolulu in 2025. The carrier disclosed plans to serve Seattle last year but has not officially announced that route. Seattle-Seoul currently has four carriers following Alaska Airlines and Hawaiian’s entry in September 2025.

By the first week of May 2026, Air Premia plans 31 weekly U.S. departures, according to Cirium Diio data as of December 1. The schedule includes 11 weekly Los Angeles flights, daily Newark service, five weekly San Francisco departures, and four weekly flights each to Honolulu and Dulles. That represents more than double the 15 weekly departures operated during the same period in 2025.

Air Premia will capture approximately 13% of the Seoul-U.S. market, which totals 242 weekly departures across all passenger airlines, excluding U.S. Pacific territories. The carrier’s market share has grown from a minimal base a year earlier.

In Washington-area airports — Dulles, Reagan National and Baltimore/Washington International — approximately 1.5 million passengers traveled to and from Asia in the year through September, excluding Middle East destinations. That equated to more than 4,100 daily passengers.

Tokyo ranked as the largest Asian market from the capital region with 185,000 passengers, followed by Seoul with 154,000. Other major markets included Hyderabad with 133,000 passengers, Delhi with 111,000, Manila with 97,000, and Ho Chi Minh City with 79,000. Air India suspended its Delhi-Dulles service in June 2025.

Air Premia also plans charter flights to Las Vegas in January, according to Aeroroutes.