Korean Air Directly Handles Ground Operations at Japanese Airports... First Foreign Airline to Do So

Scheduled to Start Next Month
"Direct Participation in Addressing Japan's Ground Crew Labor Shortage"

Korean Air will participate in ground handling operations such as aircraft towing after landing and before takeoff, as well as baggage handling, at New Chitose Airport in Japan starting next month. This marks the first time a foreign airline in Japan has directly managed ground handling without outsourcing it.

Yonhap News

On the 17th, the Nihon Keizai Shimbun reported this development, analyzing that "due to a shortage of personnel responsible for ground handling at Japanese airports, making it difficult to increase flight frequencies, Korean Air aims to directly train its own staff to handle these operations."

This is the first instance of a foreign airline directly managing ground handling without outsourcing in Japan. Foreign airlines typically entrust ground handling tasks at Japanese airports to ground service companies centered around Japan Airlines (JAL) or All Nippon Airways (ANA). Although there is a foreign ground handling company, Swissport, headquartered in Switzerland, no foreign airline has handled ground operations themselves. Korean Air is known to have established 'Korean Air Airport Service' in Japan last October to prepare for ground handling operations.

Korean Air plans to expand its own ground handling services to other major airports in Japan, starting with New Chitose Airport. Including Asiana Airlines, Korean Air operates 735 round-trip flights weekly across all Japanese airports, accounting for just over 10% of Japan's international flights.