Airline News
Heather Cho found guilty, Korean Air debt soars
February 16th 2015
Korean Air senior executive, Heather Cho Hyun-ah, daughter of Korean Air chairman, Cho Yang-ho, was found guilty of breaking aviation law when she ordered an Incheon-bound Korean Air A380 to return to the gate at New York’s John F Kennedy Airport on December 5. Read More » She was sentenced to a year of imprisonment on February 12. The heiress, who was in charge of the carrier’s inflight division, was travelling in the first class cabin when she became outraged with the presentation of some Macadamia nuts in a bag rather than in a bowl, as expected in the premium cabin.
Korean Air’s financial results for the final quarter of 2014 are still outstanding. Analysts have cautioned the carrier is will continue in the red as it takes delivery of aircraft and faces intense competition and yield pressure from LCCs on its domestic and regional routes. Last year, Korean LCCs controlled more than 50% of the domestic market. Korean Air plans to sell 44 aircraft, mainly B747s, by 2017, and part-replace them with the 46 more fuel-efficient long-haul airplanes it has on order: six A330-300s, twelve B777-300ERs, ten B747-8s and ten B787-9s, two B747-8Fs and six B777Fs A top-up order for five airframes was placed mid this month.
Passengers will see little evidence of the carrier’s financial woes. It has unveiled its revamped staggered business class product, dubbed ‘Prestige Suites’, initially debuting them on A330 services to Guangzhou, Hanoi and Singapore. The carrier announced it will change its Seoul-Milan-Rome route to direct flights to both cities to tap into the projected growth in South Korean tourists to Europe.
