Korean Air to launch nonstop service to Houston

  Korean Air announced Wednesday it is launching a nonstop service between its capital Seoul and the U.S. city Houston, starting in May 2014. The inaugural flight will take place on May 2, with service aboard a B777-200 aircraft. The flights will launch between George Bush Intercontinental and Incheon International Airports. The flights will depart from Houston every Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday. "We're very bullish on the Americas," says John Jackson, the airline's vice president of marketing for North and South America, in a statement. "Houston is the fifth largest metro area in the U.S. with a very strong travel market to Asia. We've decided to earn our fair share of the market with a highly competitive product and service that's hard to beat." Houston will become Korean Air' s 11th U.S. destination and its second in Texas. The airline's other U.S. destinations are Atlanta, Chicago O'Hare, Dallas/Fort Worth, Honolulu, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, New York JFK, San Francisco, Seattle and Washington Dulles. Houston, an energy hub of the United States, has been the newest destination of Air China and Turkish Airlines, which launched nonstop service to Houston in 2013, flying to Beijing and Istanbul respectively. Air China recently expanded their Houston-Beijing route, moving from four flights per week to daily service.