[ASIAN ON AIR] Special – Korean Air Headquarters + Training Facilities Tour

Korean Air is our main sponsor for the Asian on Air program and as part of our itinerary, we were able to make a rare visit to its headquarters and training facilities in Incheon!! Even our tour guides and the other KTO representatives were excited as well as it is really a rare chance. In fact, you can call it a by-invitation only visit. We were the lucky VIPS that day!

Just some brief information about Korean Air,

• It is South Korea’s largest airlines, with a fleet of 147 aircrafts operating more than 400 flights daily, to 122 cities in 42 countries.
• World’s top 20 airlines
• Member of SkyTeam alliance

Incheon, is the city where Incheon International Airport is located and it is about 40 minutes from Seoul, with good traffic. In my opinion, it is less bustling and crowded compared to Seoul, slightly more peaceful and quiet.

They had really strict security and we had to wait a while until our passes was ready before we were allowed entry into the building.

Korean Air’s corporate colours is sky blue. This can be seen on its aircrafts and of course, stewardess uniform.

 

When we arrive into the meeting/conference room, everything was placed neatly on the table. We got a miniature aircraft as a gift from them!

When I see this bear, the first thing I thought of was the Goodbye Captain drama. I don’t know why =p Anyway, I think koreans have a fetish for teddy bears. They are everywhere!!

Our itinerary for the day~

After a brief introduction, we set off to our first destination – Operation Control Center.

 

Real time display of all flights around the world!! You can really see the aircrafts moving, their plan destinations and routes, the wind direction and whether there will be (potential) turbulence or not!

I think this is the map and real time information of the planes on the runway tracks!

Koreans seem to have a rather quiet office culture. The phone doesn’t ring loudly and people are busy with work and nobody seem to be talking loudly or laughing when we were there. Everyone looks rather serious and highly concentrated with their job. I guess their jobs are very important.

Until today, I have yet to learn to tell the difference between a boeing and an airbus and also between models.. So, is this at 747?

Seems like they are into endorsing racing as well~

Next we were going to visit the hanger~ The place where they keep their planes, repair/maintain them.

HL 8222 is like the number plate for the plane. Similar to car number plate..

This is what our paparazzi crew look like =p Well basically, each and everyone of us has a camera and we would want that photo on our group camera.. so the phototaking just got longer, and longer, and longer. I think I have not smiled that much in my whole entire life than those 4 days. HAHAHAHA.

After the hanger visit, we had a chance to try the flight simulator!

The trainers were very nice to host us and the best part is that they can converse in English!!

Then~ we had lunch in the staff cafeteria and proceeded for the second half of our tour, the training facilities visit!!

(by the way, the building is so big that they have their own shinhan bank within its building facilities. I followed one girl to change money~~)

We had to take the bus there as it was at a different building.

Inside the training classroom~

Practice Room for opening and closing of aircraft doors~~~ Each model of air craft has a different type of doors..

Our instructor was previously a cabin crew! If I didn’t remember wrongly, the requirements for females to be cabin crew is a degree/diploma equivalent and 1.62m in height!

And of course, the actual interior of the aircraft. When I saw this, in my head.. I keep thinkng of the various dramas which require inside flight scenes.. I’m sure a lot of filming took place here.. She even showed us an emergency situation which comes with smoke coming out from the toilet and the falling of oxygen masks from the top! hahaha. impressive~~

Emergency Fire Suit and Fire Extinguisher practice

She had to wear the full gear before getting the chance to pull the trigger on the fire extinguisher to extinguish a real flame!

And this part was really the best! A full indoor swimming pool!!

I guess it is used for practicing emergency evacuation to the sea and how they will disembark their lifeboats?

And I really love this part of the trip..

SLIDING DOWN THE EMERGENCY SLIDE~~ It was so fun that I tried twice. It’s so fast that you get the heart drop feeling while sliding down~~

AUTUMN IS HERE!! We had a massive photo taking outside the buildings because the leaves were so pretty~

Our second last group photo for the trip T_T

We were really lucky to be invited for this facility visit. I’ve always been fascinated with the aviation industry and it was really good to learn more about them. The best part was that they had no restriction on photography! I’m glad to have the chance to share this with everyone who is interested in the aviation industry and/or korean air.

I would like to take this chance to thank everyone who made this trip possible, Korean Air, Korean Tourism Organization, the people who chose my winning entry for this contest, the various sponsors for this trip, the tour guides Sue and Pil, the camera man, the media and the various KTO/Korean Air representatives which took time off work to join us, the driver. Last but not the least, the 19 other people from Asia which made this trip fun and memorable!! & also, to YOU who reads my blog! I hope my entries have helped you in any way possible~~

Where and when shall my next vacation be?????

It’s hard now that I’m working.. but.. Any recommendations?

*Pray hard and wish and plan and who knows, I might just be off in a jet plane again~~~~~*