S. Korea begins offering information on airline safety

SEOUL, July 13 (Yonhap) -- South Korea on Wednesday started providing online information on the safety of all airlines with service to and from the country.
The information covers the frequency of flight delays or cancellations due to safety reasons by each of the 65 foreign airlines with passenger or cargo service to South Korea, as well as those of the country's two flag carriers and five low-cost carriers, the Ministry of Land, Transport and Maritime Affairs said.
It also includes the results of safety audits by the International Civil Aviation Organization and the list of 27 countries and their airlines blacklisted by the European Union for safety reasons.
All the information is available at the ministry's Web site, http://aviation.mltm.go.kr.
"The ministry plans to regularly update airline safety information to help raise safety awareness of the country's airlines and also provide information to the public in choosing safe airlines," the ministry said in a press release.
According to the ministry, out of 47 foreign airlines with passenger service to and from South Korea, the Netherlands' KLM Royal Dutch Airlines ranked the lowest in terms of safety with a flight delay and cancellation rate of 3.72 percent. Twelve of its 325 scheduled flights to and from South Korea between July 2010 to June 2011 were either delayed or canceled due to safety reasons.
Out of South Korea's seven airlines, industry leader Korean Air Co. was named the safest with a delay and cancellation rate of 0.15 percent, followed by the budget carrier Air Busan with 0.2 percent.
Sixteen of the 47 foreign airlines with service to South Korea had no incidents where they were forced to delay or cancel flights due to safety reasons.
bdk@yna.co.kr
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