Always looking ahead, the company laid the groundwork for the future when it ordered American Boeing Company's B747 Jumbo in 1972, plus 6 additional Airbus A300 models in its early years.
In 1979, Korean Air launched a new service with direct passenger flights to New York, a gateway to expanding its routes for both passengers and freight throughout the 1980s. The dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 and an aeronautical agreement with China in 1994 opened the skies to exciting new Korean Air route networks.