Air Koryo Conducts Night Flight Between Pyongyang and Shanghai; Purpose of Operation Unclear

Second Flight This Year
Attention on Restoration of Regular Route

On June 30, NK News, a U.S.-based media outlet specializing in North Korea, reported that an Air Koryo passenger plane made a round-trip flight to Shanghai, China, on June 29.

According to NK News’s analysis of the flight tracking website Flightradar24, an Air Koryo aircraft with the registration number P-671, which is one of North Korea’s Ukrainian-made Antonov AN-148 models, departed from Pyongyang Sunan International Airport on June 29 and landed in Shanghai at 10:00 p.m. after a two-hour flight.

North Korea Air Koryo passenger plane.

The aircraft then departed for North Korea at 12:47 a.m. on June 30 and returned to Pyongyang at 2:10 a.m.

This is the third time an Air Koryo passenger plane has flown to and from Shanghai since the COVID-19 pandemic, and the second time this year. Among Air Koryo’s fleet, the Tupolev Tu-204-300 completed a round-trip flight between Shanghai and Pyongyang once in December 2023.

Previously, during the Pyongyang International Marathon in April, an AN-148 aircraft with the registration number P-672 flew to and from Shanghai, transporting foreign athletes.

The Pyongyang-Shanghai route is considered a charter service and is not listed on the Air Koryo website. However, it is known that before the pandemic, regular flights operated on Thursdays and Saturdays each week.

In January 2020, North Korea suspended charter flights to China and closed its borders to prevent the spread of COVID-19.

Since then, it has been reported that flights to Beijing and Shenyang resumed in 2023, but the Shanghai route has not yet officially resumed.

The purpose of this latest flight has not been disclosed, and it is also unclear whether this signals the resumption of the Shanghai charter flight route.