Air Koryo (Korean: 고려항공; Hancha: 高麗航空; MR: Koryŏ Hanggong) is North Korea's flag carrier and only commercial airline.

[16] During the rule of Kim Jong Un, Air Koryo also started branching out into commercial sectors beyond aviation, such as ground transportation and consumer goods.

[18] In early 1950, SOKAO (Soviet–Korean Airline, 소련-조선항공; 蘇聯-朝鮮航空; Soryŏn-Chosŏn Hanggong) was established as a joint North Korean-Soviet venture to connect Pyongyang with Moscow.

The state airline was then placed under the control of the Civil Aviation Administration of Korea (CAAK) and re-branded Korean Airways (조선민항; 朝鮮民航; Chosŏn Minhang), starting operations on 21 September 1955 with Lisunov Li-2, Antonov An-2 and Ilyushin Il-12 aircraft.

[8][14][20] Jet operations commenced in 1975 when the first Tupolev Tu-154 was delivered for service from Pyongyang to Prague, East Berlin, and Moscow with refueling stops in Irkutsk and Novosibirsk, as the Tu-154 had insufficient range.

[21] The Tu-154 fleet was increased at the start of the 1980s, while the first long-haul Ilyushin Il-62 was delivered back in 1979 (two of these aircraft are used in VIP configuration),[22] allowing Korean Airways to offer a direct non-stop service to Moscow for the first time, as well as serving Sofia and Belgrade.

[15] Alongside Soviet aircraft, North Korea also considered acquiring Concorde supersonic jets for Air Koryo under a plan by Kim Il Sung to boost the country's international prestige.

[23] The end of the Cold War and the collapse of communism in Eastern Europe saw a vast reduction in the number of international services offered.

Korean Airways re-branded as Air Koryo on 28 March 1992, and in 1993, ordered three Ilyushin Il-76 freight aircraft to carry cargo to and from its destinations in China and Russia.

The European Commission found evidence of serious safety deficiencies on the part of Air Koryo during ramp inspections in France and Germany.

The airline failed to reply to an inquiry by the French Civil Aviation Authority regarding its safety operations, pointing to a lack of transparency or communication on the part of Air Koryo.

[30] In March 2010, Air Koryo was allowed to resume operations into the EU only with their Tu-204 aircraft, which were fitted with the necessary equipment to comply with mandatory international standards.

[34] The flights operated twice a week utilizing the Tu-204, but were cancelled in mid-2017 due to sanctions imposed resulting from the poisoning murder of Kim Jong-nam at Kuala Lumpur International Airport by suspected North Korean agents.

[39] In 2017, during the rule of North Korean Chairman Kim Jong-un, there were signs that Air Koryo was branching out into commercial sectors beyond aviation, providing goods and services as diverse as petrol stations, taxis, tobacco, soft drinks, and tinned pheasant meat.

[41] However, both have since been sighted with the name of Sky KG Airlines added on top of Air Koryo's colors and have been moved to Zhukovsky International Airport by Moscow, where they remain as of November 2023.

[57][58][59] Air Koryo operated an airline interline partnership with Aeroflot (SkyTeam) on services radiating from Vladivostok and Pyongyang until 2017 when it was forced to close the agreement due to newly imposed sanctions.