Korean Air and Asiana Airlines are continuing their race to add more competitive routes. Korean Air will be starting one weekly nonstop flight to the gateway to the Himalayas, Nepal’s Kathmandu, the airline announced Monday. A 301-seater Boeing 777-200 will ply the route from Incheon leaving at 10:20 a.m. on Monday and taking off from Katmandu at 4 p.m.

An airline staffer says there are now more than 10 million hikers in Korea, so a route that services Nepal and Tibet, which are becoming more and more popular as tourist destinations, will be very lucrative. Korean Air plans to increase the number of flights to two or three starting in March. Additionally, the carrier opens routes to the Cambodian capital of Phnom Penh on Tuesday and to Siem Reap, the gateway to Angkor Wat, on Wednesday as regular charters. That heats competition with Asiana, which has been operating four weekly flights to Siem Reap and two flights to Phnom Penh.

Asiana for its part will be adding five new weekly flights from Busan to Shanghai starting this Saturday. The flights leave Busan Monday, Wednesday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday at 10 a.m. and arrive the same day 10:35 a.m. With this addition Asiana becomes the third airline to fly the route, following Korean Air, and China Eastern Airlines.

(englishnews@chosun.com )