Strike halts Korean Air flights
Some 190 Korean Air pilots launched a strike, Dec. 17, demanding a wage increase. The walkout halted 20 international flights connecting Korea to Japan, Hong Kong, the United Arab Emirates, Soudi Arabia as well as 64 domestic flights during Dec. 22-26.
By Ko Dong-hwan
Travelers who booked international flights with Korean Air during Dec. 22-26 may need to look for alternative itineraries after a pilots’ strike partly shut down overseas and domestic routes on Saturday.
The strike at Korea’s flagship airline has halted 20 international flights departing Incheon International Airport during the period.
Destinations include Narita and Osaka in Japan, Hong Kong, Dubai in the United Arab Emirates, and cities in Saudi Arabia.
The strike has stopped 64 domestic flights connecting airports at Gimhae, Ulsan, Yeosu, Jeju and Gimpo.
But the airline ― designated an essential public service in 2010 ― says it will operate most flights, maintaining an operation rate of 97 percent in flights to Japan, China and the Middle East; 83 percent in domestic flights and 90 percent in freight transport.
Korean Air’s pilots’ union organized the strike as part of a wages dispute.
The dispute started last year, with the union initially demanding a 37 percent increase and later reducing this to 29 percent.
The company argued that the pilots could not demand more than 1.9 percent agreed to between the company and the general employees’ union.
Almost 190 among the company’s 2,700 pilots will participate in the walkout, threatening to strike until Dec. 31.
After the threat, the Minister of Land, Infrastructure and Transport Kang Ho-in met CEOs of the nation’s nine airlines, including Korean Air.
He ordered an emergency control committee to start operating on Dec. 20 and, if necessary, to use planes not yet commissioned for regular flights.
“The CEOs should be adamant that flight safety must be maintained,” Kang said at the meeting, according to YTN.
“Safety must be considered the foremost administrative principle.”
The minister’s emphasis on safety came after Korean airlines reported four service-related incidents this month alone.
On Dec. 2, two Asiana Airlines co-pilots punched and kicked each other, delaying an Incheon-New York flight for about an hour.
Three days later, another Asiana Airlines plane made an emergency landing at Khanty-Mansiysk airport in central Russia after a smoke alarm went off.
On Dec 5, a Korean Air flight departure was delayed after part of its communications equipment failed.
And a Jeju Air flight returned midway through its flight because of a technical problem.