By Kim Rahn
Staff Reporter
Air Korea, Korean Air's budget affiliate planning to start operations in July, seeks to differentiate itself from its parent carrier, emphasizing a ``new'' and ``young'' image.
As part of this, it is dropping the conventional interview format for female cabin attendants when it held a recruitment fair from Thursday till Friday. The interview scene was quite different from that of other airlines ― the interviewees were wearing T-shirts, blue jeans and sneakers.
Usually, flight attendant hopefuls take interviews in white blouse, black skirt and black high heels, to look ``prim and proper,'' as airlines ― especially Korean ones ― want their attendants to have such a neat image.
``Air Korea is a young airlines, and practicality is one of the important factors as a low-cost carrier. We seek a casual and comfortable image rather than a formal one,'' a Korean Air official said.
``The questions at the interview will be a little bit different from Korean Air's. We cannot disclose the details though as the interviews are ongoing,'' the official said Thursday.
But he hinted that the interview style would be unconventional.
Forty-six interns who have worked on Korean Air's domestic flights were called for interviews after resume screening. Fifteen of them will be selected, and they will take Korean Air's training program, the official said.
The budget carrier will launch operations in late July with one B737-800 aircraft. They will adopt one more airplane around October, and will have open recruitment for additional attendants in August.
The uniform of Air Korea crew will be revealed soon, as well as the carrier's corporate logo.
``Air Korea will bring a fresh image to the air travel market through next-generation aircraft, safe operations, high-quality service, and fine attendants who meet the carrier's young image,'' the official said.
Air Korea, which was established with 20 billion won of capital from Korean Air, will be able to take advantage of Korean Air's know-how on maintenance, management and operational training.
``Korean Air and Air Korea are expected to complement each other, with the former focusing on high-end business travel and the latter concentrating on short and mid-range tourism destinations,'' he said.
The carrier is expected to operate international flights as early as next year, following the aviation authority's recent decision to apply less strict standards for new airlines' international operations.