Asiana broke Korean Air's monopoly in 1988 and is now merging into it
For two decades Korean Air was the only airline South Korea had. Asiana arrived in 1988 to challenge it, grew into a global Star Alliance carrier, and after years of regulatory wrangling is being absorbed by its old rival, with full integration due on 17 December 2026 after 38 years of flying.
Rival business conglomerates, not a push for open markets, drove Asiana's creation. The Kumho group founded it as Seoul Air International on 17 February 1988, and flights began that December with Boeing 737s to Busan and Gwangju. Scheduled services to Tokyo, Nagoya, Sendai and Fukuoka followed in 1990, and a Boeing 747 combining passengers and freight opened the Los Angeles route in December 1991. Vienna, Brussels and Honolulu came in the mid-1990s.
Growth was steady. The airline flew for South Korea's president for the first time in December 1998, joined Star Alliance on 28 January 2003 and moved into mainland China with new Airbus and Boeing jets in 2004. By 2019 it held a quarter of the country's international aviation market and a fifth of domestic travel, with net sales reaching 5.3 billion dollars in 2012. It also set up two budget offshoots, Air Busan and Air Seoul.
Money troubles at the parent group changed everything. In April 2019 Kumho Asiana put the airline up for sale, and a deal with a Hyundai Development consortium collapsed. On 16 November 2020 the government announced a merger with Korean Air, backed by 800 billion won from the state Korea Development Bank. Approvals dragged on across 14 jurisdictions; American regulators blocked the deal in May 2023 over monopoly fears, and Asiana agreed to sell its cargo arm. Europe signed off on 28 November 2024 and the United States days later.
Korean Air completed the purchase of 63.88 percent on 12 December 2024 for 1.5 trillion won, becoming the world's twelfth largest airline by international capacity. Asiana's red arrow tail design, inherited from Kumho, was quietly painted out.
Source: Asiana Airlines
