at
Oakland in 1953
Founding In 1962,
government of the Republic of Korea acquired
Korean National Airlines, which was founded in 1946, and changed its name to Korean Air Lines to become a state-owned airline. On 1 March 1969, the
Hanjin Group acquired the state-owned airline and it is the beginning of Korean Air. Long-haul trans-pacific freight operations were introduced on April 26, 1971, followed by passenger services to
Los Angeles International Airport on April 19, 1972.
Expansion in August 1987 with a previous livery. This aircraft is the only Boeing 707 ordered by Korean Air from Boeing, and was destroyed in 1987 as
Korean Air Flight 858. Korean Air operated international flights to destinations such as Hong Kong, Japan, Taiwan, and Los Angeles with
Boeing 707s until the introduction of the
Boeing 747 in 1973. That year, the airline introduced Boeing 747s on its trans-Pacific routes and started a European service to Paris, France, using the 707 and then
McDonnell Douglas DC-10. In 1975, the airline became one of the earliest Asian airlines to operate
Airbus aircraft with the purchase of three
Airbus A300s, which were put into immediate service on Asian routes. In 1981, Korean Air opened its cargo terminal at
Los Angeles International Airport.
Checkered safety culture and record Korean Air was once notorious for its abysmal safety record and high rate of fatal crashes. Between 1970 and 1999, Korean Air wrote off 16 aircraft due to serious incidents and accidents, with the loss of over 700 lives. In 1999,
Delta Air Lines suspended its code-sharing relationship with Korean Air, explicitly citing its poor safety record following the fatal crash of
Korean Air Cargo Flight 6316. It marked the first time safety was explicitly cited as the reason for stopping a major code-sharing alliance by an airline. Other partners including
Air Canada and
Air France followed suit. In 2001, the
Federal Aviation Administration downgraded South Korea's aviation safety rating and blocked South Korean carriers from expanding into the United States after the country and its carriers failed to improve sufficiently following a warning the previous year. The move was driven by the country's lax oversight of its carriers including Korean Air. The rating has since been restored as the airline invested billions of dollars to improve safety, upgrade its fleet, install new technology, and overhaul its corporate culture including hiring consultants from
Boeing and
Delta Air Lines. On 5 June 2007, Korean Air said that it would create a new low-cost carrier called
Jin Air in Korea to compete with Korea's
KTX high-speed railway network system, which offered cheaper fares and less stringent security procedures compared to air travel. Jin Air started scheduled passenger service on July 17, 2008. Korean Air announced that some of its 737s and A300s would be given to Jin Air. In mid-2010, a co-marketing deal with games company
Blizzard Entertainment sent a
747-400 and a
737-900 taking to the skies wrapped in
StarCraft II branding. In August 2010, Korean Air announced heavy second-quarter losses despite record-high revenue. In August 2010, Hanjin Group, the parent of KAL, opened a new cargo terminal at
Navoiy International Airport in Uzbekistan, which will become a cargo hub with regular Seoul-Navoi-Milan flights. In 2013, Korean Air acquired a 44% stake in
Czech Airlines. It sold the stake in October 2017. On 1 May 2018, the airline launched a
joint venture partnership with
Delta Air Lines. In 2019, Korean Air began playing a
safety video with the
K-pop group
SuperM. It featured the song "Let's go everywhere", which was to be released as a single. The airline also featured the group on a livery sported by a
Boeing 777-300ER, with registration HL8010.In 2023, Korean Air was certified a 5-star Airline by
Skytrax, an air transport rating organization. In 2025, a 10% shareholding was acquired in Canadian airline
WestJet.
Nut rage incident Cho Hyun-Ah, also known as "Heather Cho", is the daughter of then-chairman
Cho Yang-ho. She resigned from some of her duties in late 2014 after she ordered a Korean Air jet to return to the gate to allow a flight attendant to be removed from the aircraft. The attendant had served Cho nuts in a bag instead of on a plate. As a result of further fallout, Cho Hyun-Ah was later arrested by Korean authorities for violating South Korea's aviation safety laws.
Merger with Asiana Airlines In November 2020, during the
COVID-19 pandemic, the
South Korean Government officially announced that Korean Air will acquire
Asiana Airlines. The
Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport of the Republic of Korea will integrate subsidiaries
Air Busan,
Air Seoul, and
Jin Air to form a combined low-cost carrier which will focus on regional airports in Korea. In March 2021, KAL announced that the merger with Asiana Airlines would be delayed as foreign authorities had not approved the deal. As of 2023, the deal has not been completed as essential countries have approached the deal with skepticism. On 12 December 2024, Reuters reported that Korean Air had announced the completion of the purchase of debt-laden Asiana Airlines in a deal worth 1.5 trillion won (USD 1.6 billion). The deal enables Korean Air to acquire 63.88% of the second-largest airline in the country, becoming the 12th largest airline in the world by international capacity.
Rebranding On 11 March 2025, as part of its merger with Asiana Airlines, in which the latter brand will be fully absorbed in 2027, Korean Air unveiled its first major corporate rebrand since 1984. The rebranding was done in partnership with design agency
Lippincott and saw the existing "Taegeuk" symbol lose its blue and red color palette in favor of outlined monochromatic dark blue color of the same symbol. It also replaced the wordmark "KOREAN AIR" written in a modified
Cooper Black typeface with a sans-serif version named "Korean Air Sans" designed by
Dalton Maag for the same wordmark (in the case of aircraft liveries, the wordmark is just "KOREAN"). == Corporate affairs and identity ==