South Korean low-cost operator Parata Air has disclosed plans to open services to US destinations from next year, using Airbus A330-200s.
It initially plans to serve Los Angeles and Las Vegas from Seoul from the beginning of the 2026 summer season.
The carrier is leasing a pair of Rolls-Royce Trent 700-powered A330-200s, one from US lessor Air Lease and the other from China’s Hangrun Technology.
After securing an air operator’s certificate in early September, Parata Air has newly commenced domestic services on the Yangyang-Jeju and Gimpo-Jeju routes.
It is already expanding its network to international destinations in Japan and Vietnam over the winter season.
The carrier has emerged from a turbulent background.
It trace its origin to a planned start-up called Fly Yangyang in 2016. But Korea’s transport ministry denied the carrier an operating licence.
Fly Yangyang was subsequently renamed as Fly Gangwon and obtained an air operator’s certificate in October 2019 – just two months before the initial outbreak of Covid-19 was confirmed in China.
Although Fly Gangwon commenced operations in late November 2019, it was badly affected by the pandemic, ceasing services and filing for bankruptcy in May 2023.
The company was sold later that year to a Korean electronics firm, Winix, which specialises in air purifiers and humidifiers.
Winix completed the acquisition in July last year and renamed the carrier, which it wholly owns, as Parata Air – a name based on a shade of blue, to reflect the sky, according to a filing to US regulators.
Parata Air says it obtained its AOC from the Korean transport ministry on 8 September, and started flights on 30 September.
It identifies its chief executive as Chul-Min Yoon.
Parata Air says it will be “adding more aircraft to its fleet as its operations develop”, and that it could expand its planned US operations in the future.
