By Kim Rahn
Staff Reporter
Mona Lisa's smile will welcome Korean passengers to Paris.
Korean Air will present an aircraft wrapped with the images of the famous portrait and the Korean alphabet ``Hunminjeongeum'' (or ``hangeul''), in commemoration of Musee de Louvre's Korean-language guiding service starting in mid-February, sponsored by the carrier.
Small hangeul letters will form the image of Mona Lisa. Some larger letters will also be placed around the portrait, to be put on a B747-400 passenger jet, along with the catchphrase ``Passionate Wings to Art.''
``The design symbolizes the `best encounter' between Korea's best cultural property of hangeul and the Louvre's representative painting of Mona Lisa,'' a Korean Air official said.
In the middle of February, Musee de Louvre will adopt a new multimedia guide service. The current audio guide is provided in six languages but not Korean, although 90,000 Koreans visit annually.
The aircraft, after the wrapping work in early February, will fly the Incheon-Paris route. Korean Air plans to decorate about three additional planes with the images for the promotion and operate them for three years.
``We expect the plane to become a symbol of friendship between Korea and France and open a new era of global culture marketing,'' the official said.
The wrapping operation will require skillful technique, as the two types of decoration will be applied together ― attaching a special film of Mona Lisa on the fuselage and writing the large hangeul letters and the catchphrase with paints. The operation will take about 10 days.
The image will be put not only on the aircraft but also on airport limousine buses and the building of Hanjin Group, parent company of Korean Air, in downtown Seoul.