Korean National Airlines

Korean National Airlines

Founded	1946
Commenced operations	1948
Ceased operations	1962 (merged into Korean Air Lines)
Operating bases	Kimpo International Airport
Fleet size	7
Headquarters	Seoul, South Korea
Key people	Shin Yong-Wook (Founder & CEO)

Korean name
Hangul	대한국민항공
Hanja	大韓國民航空
Revised Romanization	Daehan Gukmin Hanggong
McCune–Reischauer	Taehan kukmin Hanggong

Korean National Airlines (KNA) was the first (commercial cargo and passenger) air carrier in Korea. Established in 1946 and incorporated in 1948 in South Korea, and its first official passenger flight was from Seoul to Pusan on October 30, 1948 (which is now Korea's National Air Day holiday). The carrier was an international carrier – though it was privately owned by its Founding Chairman, Captain Shin Yong-Wook [신용욱].

In late 1961, many Korean industries, including transportation, were nationalized in an effort to spur the country's economic growth. However, Shin Yong-Wook challenged the government's authority to nationalize his company and KNA was taken over in a forced acquisition by the government-run Korean Air Lines (Korean: 대한항공공사) in 1962.

Fleet

The Korean National Airlines fleet consisted of the following aircraft throughout operations:

Korean National Airlines Fleet

Aircraft	Total	Notes
Douglas DC-3	4	1 leased from All Nippon Airways
Douglas DC-4	2	1 leased from Japan Airlines
Lockheed L-749 Constellation	1

References

• 노고지리의 증언 (한국항공대학교출판부 1999.3.29)
• http://news.chosun.com/site/data/html_dir/2010/01/21/2010012101878.html?srchCol=news&srchUrl=news1
• http://koreandb.nate.com/history/people/detail?sn=5383
• http://www.dailyjeonbuk.com/news/articleView.html?idxno=62220
• http://blog.ohmynews.com/post9/tag/KNA
• http://www.koreanair.com/local/na/gd/eng/au/ci/eng_au_ci_ht.htm
• http://www.flightglobal.com/pdfarchive/view/1963/1963%20-%200550.html?search=Korean
• interview with daughter of KNA Founder and Chosun Ilbo newspaper editor