"Flight Attendants Drink Onboard"... 8 Airlines Fined Over 10 Billion Won

8 Airlines from 8 Countries Fined a Total of 13.8 Billion KRW
Number of Cases Highest for Korean Air, Amount Highest for Jeju Air

It has been confirmed that over the past five years, domestic airlines have been fined a total of over 10 billion KRW by aviation authorities for violating safety operation-related regulations.

On the 13th, the office of Ahn Tae-jun, a member of the National Assembly Land, Infrastructure and Transport Committee from the Democratic Party of Korea, disclosed the "Status of Fines Imposed on Domestic Airlines under the Aviation Safety Act," which was submitted by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport.

According to the data, from 2019 to August of this year, eight domestic airlines were fined a total of 13.8 billion KRW over 40 cases for violations of the Aviation Safety Act and other regulations.

By airline, Korean Air had the most cases with 9. Jeju Air and T'way Air each had 7 cases, followed by Eastar Jet with 6 cases. Asiana Airlines (5 cases), Jin Air (3 cases), Air Busan (2 cases), and Air Seoul (1 case) followed.

T'way Air's aircraft [Image source=Yonhap News]

The reasons for the sanctions varied, including ▲detection of cabin crew drinking alcohol ▲operating aircraft with partial wing damage ▲not observing brake cooling times, among others.

Jeju Air was fined the highest total amount of 3.738 billion KRW. Next were Eastar Jet (2.86 billion KRW), T'way Air (2.439 billion KRW), Korean Air (1.62 billion KRW), Asiana Airlines (1.554 billion KRW), Jin Air (1.359 billion KRW), Air Seoul (210 million KRW), and Air Busan (20 million KRW).

The single largest fine imposed at one time was on Eastar Jet in August 2019, amounting to 1.65 billion KRW. At that time, they were caught operating a total of 10 aircraft without adhering to the maintenance regulations for pre- and post-flight inspection intervals.

Since Eastar Jet resumed operations early last year after a three-year hiatus, there have been no cases of fines imposed.

By year, the total fines for domestic airlines decreased from 5.7 billion KRW in 2019 to 750 million KRW last year, but increased again to 2.415 billion KRW this year. Most of this was due to T'way Air, which received 2.05 billion KRW (5 cases) in August. T'way Air was fined for using parts beyond the authorized maintenance capability range (1.2 billion KRW) and failing to perform pre- and post-flight aircraft inspections (400 million KRW), among other violations.

Representative Ahn stated, “There must never be a situation where domestic airlines violate the most important safety laws and put passengers at risk,” and emphasized, “Airlines must strictly comply with the laws, and the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport must thoroughly manage and supervise this to do their best in protecting consumers.”