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South Korea Fines Korean Air and Asiana Over Merger Condition Breaches

By  |  August 4, 2025

South Korea’s Fair Trade Commission (KFTC) has imposed a ₩12.1 billion (US$8.7 million) fine on Korean Air and Asiana Airlines for breaching critical conditions tied to their merger, according to a statement released by the regulatory body.

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    The penalty—described by the KFTC as the largest of its kind since 1991—stems from findings that both carriers increased airfares beyond limits established during the conditional approval of their merger in December 2024. The fare restrictions were designed to safeguard consumers by ensuring that reduced competition would not lead to higher prices.

    Per a statement from the KFTC, routes departing from Incheon (ICN), Gwangju (KWJ), and Jeju (CJU) were among those affected by unauthorized fare hikes. One of the central stipulations of the merger approval was that ticket prices must not exceed the inflation-adjusted average fares of 2019. This applied across both economy and business class segments.

    Read more: Air Incheon to Acquire Asiana Airlines’ Cargo Unit for $342 Million

    Despite this directive, the commission found that, within the first year of the merger’s implementation, Korean Air and Asiana Airlines exceeded the approved fare limits on several international and domestic routes. According to the findings, business class fares rose between 1.3% and 28.2% above 2019 levels on flights from Incheon to Barcelona (ICN–BCN) and Frankfurt (ICN–FRA).

    Other violations noted in the statement included fare increases on the Gwangju–Jeju (KWJ–CJU) economy route and both classes of service on the Incheon–Rome (ICN–FCO) route. The KFTC emphasized that these increases ran counter to specific corrective measures that had been required to proceed with the merger.

    According to the commission’s report, the fare breaches undermined the primary objective of maintaining consumer protections in the face of airline consolidation. The ruling underscores the government’s intent to hold merged entities accountable for post-approval compliance.

    Source: Aviation 2Z