South Korea was considered to be the pioneer in North America-Asia airline travel. Its capital city of Seoul was the biggest gateway to the other side of the world in the past, with the prominence of Korean Air Lines as the largest and surest way to reach the continent.

To this day, the country offers the easiest access to North American cities in the region. Asiana's budget prices are especially attractive to the millions of Asian travelers to the United States- mostly Chinese, Japanese, and Filipino.

Locally, Chinese airlines are not enough to support the massive outbound traveling population of the country. Flights that have transpacific routes are only usually booked in Beijing or Shanghai. These are only two cities in China, the world's most populous country.

This explains the reason why most of the passengers of the tragic Asiana Boeing 777 crash were Chinese. Two of them were killed - Chinese female teenagers headed for a San Francisco vacation.

Neighboring economic powerhouses Japan and South Korea expanded their airline operations to cater to this unsupported Chinese market. This proliferation of services made Seoul one of the biggest gateways towards any North American destination, including San Francisco where the accident occurred.