Korean Air and Asiana Airlines are set to complete their merger in December, but not a single domestic flight will be added, according to filings obtained by a lawmaker. Concerns are mounting that travelers in regional cities could see fewer options and reduced convenience.
Under the pre- and post-merger flight plans submitted by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport and Korean Air to the office of Rep. Jang Jong-tae of the Democratic Party of Korea, a member of the National Assembly's Land, Infrastructure and Transport Committee, the merged Korean Air's international network will expand to 113 routes and 1,474 weekly flights from 111 routes and 1,459 weekly flights.
Domestic service, by contrast, stays at 12 routes and 541 weekly flights both before and after the merger. Even after combining the domestic operations the two carriers ran separately, no additional flights are being added.
In the integration plan submitted to the ministry, Korean Air said it would maintain Asiana Airlines' routes without consolidating or cutting service and would add flights on routes requiring more frequencies. The current plan, however, includes no domestic increases.
During the merger review, the Fair Trade Commission required the carrier to transfer slots — the number of flights permitted per hour — on eight domestic routes where competition concerns were identified. So far, transfers have been completed on only two: Gimpo to Jeju Special Self-Governing Province and Jeju Special Self-Governing Province to Gimpo. Six others remain untransferred, including Gwangju-Jeju, Busan-Jeju and Cheongju-Jeju in both directions.
For the Gwangju-Jeju route, a public solicitation for a replacement carrier drew no applicants. Solicitations for Busan-Jeju and Cheongju-Jeju have yet to begin. The difficulty is that even when slots are released, conditions for carriers to actually take them up remain far from favorable.
"Once Korean Air and Asiana Airlines become one, the competitive role that low-cost carriers must play in the domestic aviation market becomes even more important," Jang said. "If the merged carrier's domestic capacity does not grow and competing airlines fail to enter as well, the burden inevitably falls on passengers." He added: "With low-cost carriers' operating capacity weakened by high fuel prices and aircraft shortages, releasing slots and repeating solicitations will not create competition. The government needs practical measures to strengthen LCC competitiveness, such as allocating additional traffic rights and reducing airport facility usage fees."
