By Kim Bo-eun
A Seoul court Friday supported a 45-day suspension on Asiana Airlines as a punitive measure following a crash landing in San Francisco in 2013.
The Seoul Administrative Court ruled against the carrier, which filed the suit against the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport (MOLIT) to annul the suspension.
If the decision is upheld at a higher court, the carrier will have to stop operating on the Incheon-San Francisco route for the designated period.
“Asiana Airlines did not train its pilots sufficiently, and this resulted in the accident," the court said.
“The carrier may be subject to fines instead of suspension, but the maximum fine will be around 1.5 billion won and this is far short of the punitive effect which suspension would bring,” it said.
In July 2013, an Asiana Airlines passenger plane crashed while landing at the airport in San Francisco. Among the 307 on board, three Chinese passengers died and 187 were injured.
The ministry accordingly imposed a 45-day suspension on the carrier for flights between Incheon and San Francisco in November 2014. The airline operates daily flights on the route.
Claiming that the measure was against the interest of passengers, Asiana filed a suit in December that year calling for the suspension to be canceled, also demanding the suspension be withheld until a ruling is made. At the time, Asiana said the suspension would cause losses amounting to 16.2 billion won in sales.
The court at that time accepted the demand and lifted the suspension.
The carrier said it would also appeal this latest ruling.