South Korea’s Air Premia is a self-described hybrid operator. It has revealed its next scheduled route to the US. According to Aeroroutes, it will take off from Seoul Incheon to Washington Dulles in April, in time for the peak summer with the highest demand and fares. It also plans charter flights to Las Vegas in January.
According to booking data for the 12 months to September 2025, Incheon-Dulles had 124,000 round-trip passengers. When all DC-area airports are combined, the market’s traffic totaled 154,000 passengers. It will compete directly with Korean Air to Dulles. It’ll be the first time the market has had two carriers.
Air Premia To Dulles
Credit: Air Premia
While not bookable yet, Aeroroutes shows that Air Premia plans a four-weekly operation to Dulles, with the schedule indicated below. The first flight is due to leave South Korea on April 24. As it will avoid overflying Russian airspace, flights back to Asia are blocked at up to 15 hours and 25 minutes. On this basis, the new route becomes Air Premia’s longest US link.
Ch-aviation shows that Air Premia has eight Boeing 787-9s, which average 7.4 years. A ninth frame, whcih is ex-Korean Air, is due shortly. Its aircraft have various capacities and configurations. Seats vary from 309 to 344. Flightradar24 shows that various layouts are used on US routes.
As mentioned earlier, the broad Seoul-DC market had 154,000 passengers in the past year. As Air Premia does not have a network to provide feed, it exists solely on the point-to-point market. That is exceptionally hard to make work in a long-haul sense. Other carriers do it, but some, such as Norse Atlantic, suffer mightily.
Days
Incheon To Dulles; Local Times*
Dulles To Incheon; Local Times**
Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays, Sundays
10:05 am-10:50 am (13h 45m); same day arrival
1:20 pm-5:45 pm+1 (15h 25m)
* Based on the first week of service. In Simple Flying’s new time format
** Based on the first week of service. Shown in Simple Flying’s new time format
Air Premia Plans 5 US Routes (For Now)
Credit: Air Premia
The carrier’s US debut took place in 2022, when Los Angeles flights began. It took off to Newark and San Francisco in 2023, followed by Honolulu in 2025 (it had some time-limited Honolulu flights in 2024). A year ago, the carrier disclosed that it’d start flying to Seattle, but it has not officially announced this route.
Following Alaska Airlines/Hawaiian’s entry from Seattle to Seoul in September 2025, the market now has a whopping four carriers: Alaska Airlines, Asiana, Delta, and Korean Air. More flights exist in 2025 than in any other year. Clearly, that’s more than enough capacity for now. However, Air Premia might find a suitable gap when Asiana and Korean Air’s merger is finally completed.
Let’s focus on the first week of May 2026, when Dulles flights will be operational. As of December 1, and subject to change, Cirium Diio data shows that Air Premia plans 31 weekly flights to the US. It will fly 11 times a week to Los Angeles, daily to Newark, five times a week to San Francisco, and four times a week to both Honolulu and Washington Dulles. In the same seven days in 2025, 15 departures were available.
When all passenger airlines are considered, 242 weekly departures will exist between Seoul and the US (excluding US territories in the Pacific). As such, Air Premia will have 13% of the market, which has nearly doubled in a year, albeit from a very low base.
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The DC Area’s Top Asian Markets
Credit: Air Premia
Let’s combine DC-area airports: Dulles, Reagan, and Baltimore. In the year to September, they collectively had approximately 1.5 million passengers to/from Asia (excluding the Middle East). That equated to over 4,100 daily passengers.
At the city level, Tokyo was the most-trafficked market (185,000). Seoul was next (154,000), followed by Hyderabad (133,000), Delhi (111,000), Manila (97,000), Ho Chi Minh City (79,000), Mumbai (69,000), Beijing (66,000), Bangkok (58,000), and Chennai (49,000). Air India pulled its Delhi-Dulles flights in June 2025.
