Asiana Airlines brand to disappear after merger with Korean Air

n a press briefing, the chief executive of Korean Air indicated that following the merger of Asiana Airlines and Korean Air, the brand of the former would be integrated into the latter, ending the brand of Asiana Airlines in 2024.

Korean Air aims to fully integrate Asiana Airlines by 2024, as the merger process is set to officially begin in 2022, according to the president of Korean Air, Woo Kee-hong. Furthermore, the companies will look to integrate their low-cost carrier subsidiaries, namely Korean Air’s Jin Air and Asiana Airlines’ Air Busan and Air Seoul.

The plan, according to Kee-hong, will be that the low-cost subsidiary would become “a top-level low-cost airline not only in Korea but also in Asia.”

“There will be one brand, Korean Air, after the integration,” Kee-Hong stated regarding the merger of the two airlines. The process should be completed by 2024, according to Kee-Hong. The merger is still being reviewed by the Korea Fair Trade Commission (KFTC), in addition to competition authorities in several other countries.

Korean Air announced its plans to purchase a majority stake in Asiana Airlines for around ₩1.8 trillion ($1.62 billion) in November 2020. At the time, the chief executive Han Chang-Soo indicated that the two companies expected “the transaction and process to be finalized by the second half of 2021.”