SEOUL, December 22 (AJP) - South Korea’s antitrust regulator said on Monday it will impose penalties totaling 6.5 billion won ($5 million) on Korean Air and Asiana Airlines for violating merger-approval conditions that restrict sharp reductions in seat supply.
The Fair Trade Commission (FTC) said it will fine Korean Air 5.88 billion won and Asiana 580 million won for breaching a corrective order that bars the airlines from cutting annual seat supply to below 90 percent of 2019 levels during the same period.
The penalty is a monetary sanction imposed when companies fail to comply with corrective measures attached to a merger approval, the commission said.
Korean Air and Asiana filed their merger notification in November 2020, with final approval granted on Dec. 24 last year.
As part of the approval, the FTC enforced service requirements include limits on reductions in seat supply, caps on average fare increases, and the maintenance of seat pitch and free baggage allowances.
According to the FTC, between Dec. 12, 2024, and March 28, 2025, the two airlines supplied 82,534 seats on the Incheon–Frankfurt route, equivalent to 69.5 percent of the 118,728 seats offered during the same period in 2019. This fell 20.5 percentage points short of the required threshold.
The commission said the penalties are intended to raise compliance awareness and prompt tighter management of seat supply to prevent repeat violations.
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