Japan Airlines has acquired a stake in Hanjin KAL, the holding company of Korean Air, in a move that supports the view that the Japanese carrier has joined as a white knight for Hanjin KAL Chairman Cho Won-tae, whose control is under threat from second-largest shareholder Hoban Group. JAL elevated its relationship with Korean Air to that of a strategic partner.
Korean Air (003490) and JAL are also moving to strengthen their position in the global aviation industry. Building on more than 60 years of cooperation, the two carriers agreed to expand Korea-Japan codeshare flights to 400 a week from the December launch of the merged Korean Air. Korean Air will also work closely with JAL on new businesses including aircraft maintenance, the adoption of sustainable aviation fuel, or SAF, and urban air mobility, or UAM.
Stake Purchase Comes Amid Control Dispute
According to the aviation industry and the Nihon Keizai Shimbun on the 4th, JAL signed a strategic partnership with Korean Air and acquired a portion of Hanjin KAL shares. The size of the stake and the purchase price were not disclosed.
JAL is expected to serve as an ally to Cho, much as Delta Air Lines of the United States does with its 14.90% stake in Hanjin KAL. Hoban Group recently raised its Hanjin KAL holding to 20.15%, narrowing the gap with Cho to 0.41 percentage point.
Concerns have surfaced that the Korea Development Bank could sell its 10.58% stake to recover public funds following the merger of Korean Air and Asiana Airlines (020560). The state lender has acted as a white knight since a family dispute over management control erupted in 2019, and its exit could trigger a full-blown fight with Hoban Group.
Cho is seen as having drawn JAL into his camp through business cooperation to dispel such concerns. He also brought in Delta Air Lines as an ally in 2019, when he was locked in a dispute with a three-way alliance that included his sister, former Korean Air Vice President Cho Hyun-ah. Delta, which holds 14.90% of Hanjin KAL, has been widening its cooperation with Korean Air, including a joint bid for Canadian carrier WestJet.
Korea-Japan Codeshare to Expand to 400 Flights After Asiana Merger
Korean Air and JAL, the flagship carriers of Korea and Japan, declared on the 3rd in Tokyo that they would enter a strategic partnership. Korean Air belongs to SkyTeam and JAL to Oneworld, but the two agreed to build a bilateral alliance that goes beyond those groupings.
The two carriers will first strengthen cooperation in their core passenger and cargo businesses. Korean Air has applied codesharing with JAL on all routes between Korea and Japan since 2014, and the Japan routes of Asiana Airlines, which will be merged in December, will also be included. Korean Air currently operates about 250 flights a week on Japan routes, a figure expected to rise to about 400 after the merger with Asiana.
Cooperation in the cargo business will also deepen. Korean Air and JAL have moved toward jointly using the cargo terminals the two have built around the world. Sharing cargo terminals expands their global sales networks and can sharply reduce fixed costs such as logistics expenses. To address airport labor shortages, the two will also step up personnel exchanges, starting with ground handling and extending to mutual use of cabin crew training facilities.
Korean Air and JAL will also form a task force to pursue new businesses. The task force will design new cooperation models starting with aircraft maintenance, repair and overhaul, or MRO, and extending to expanded SAF use for carbon neutrality and to UAM and other future businesses. The two will also seek to secure core technologies in new business areas through joint investments in startups.
Cooperation between Korean Air and JAL dates back more than 60 years. The two carriers began working together in 1963, two years before Korea and Japan normalized diplomatic relations in 1965. At the time, Korean Air Lines Corporation, the predecessor of Korean Air, and JAL signed an agreement on the basic framework of their partnership. With a government-to-government accord difficult at the time, the two airlines first built a framework and then won approval from both governments, helping open the way for the normalization of relations.
The alliance blueprint the two carriers drew up ahead of their governments led to the opening of Korea-Japan routes the following year. Korean Air opened a Seoul-Osaka route and JAL a Seoul-Tokyo route. A Busan-Fukuoka route followed in 1967, providing a stepping stone for active exchanges between the political and business circles of the two countries.
Although they belong to different global airline alliances, Korean Air and JAL have widened their cooperation, including their own codeshare arrangement introduced in 2004. Codesharing allows a carrier to sell tickets on a partner's flight under its own flight number, expanding route networks while offering passengers more convenient booking. Since 2016, the two have also run a program that lets Korean Air customers earn Korean Air mileage when flying on JAL aircraft.
"Through this strategic partnership, the two companies will be able to maximize customer benefits by combining their outstanding infrastructure and know-how," said Choi Jung-ho, vice president of Korean Air. "We will continue to strengthen our competitiveness in the aviation market through close cooperation with global partners and provide the best service to passengers."
