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. 2021 Sep 14;98:102144. doi: 10.1016/j.jairtraman.2021.102144

Table 5.

South Korean airlines’ response to the COVID-19 crisis.

Response category Airline prevalence
Retrenchment
  • -

    Voluntary retirement (all airlines)

  • -

    Rotational unpaid leave/working from home (all airlines)

  • -

    Wage cutbacks (all airlines)

  • -

    Layoffs (ESR)

  • -

    Closed & suspended domestic and international routes (all airlines)
Perseverance
  • -

    Asset sales (real estate, company housing, business) (KAL)

  • -

    Sale of in-flight meal/duty-free business, proceeding and reviewing the sale of real estate and operations training center, and sale of Jeju employee housing (KAL)

  • -

    Government subsidies (excluding ESR)

  • -

    Loans (all airlines)

  • -

    Paid-in capital increase (all airlines)

  • -

    Promotions (exemption of ticket change/refund fee) (all airlines)

  • -

    Sales of prepaid tickets (all airlines)
Innovation
  • -
    FSCs:
    • 1)
      Business pivoting (Passenger → Cargo) strategy
    • 2)
      Increase the proportion of cargo through remodeling of passenger planes
  • -

    LCCs: New domestic flights and increase of proportion of routes
Exit
  • -

    Failure of JJA-ESR acquisition

  • -

    Failure of HDC-AAR acquisition

  • -

    KAL-AAR acquisition (in progress)

Note: Summary of South Korean airlines' response presented in section 4.2.2.