[8] The airline was, around 1999, known as "an industry pariah, notorious for fatal crashes" due to its poor safety record and a large number of incidents and accidents.

[10] In November 2020, it was announced that Korean Air would merge with competitor Asiana Airlines, but was switched to only acquire a major stake after the original merger plan was blocked by the United States Department of Justice for monopoly concerns, the acquisition was completed on December 12, 2024.

That year, the airline introduced Boeing 747s on its trans-Pacific routes and started a European service to Paris, France using the 707 and then McDonnell Douglas DC-10.

[18][19][20][21] In 1999, Korea's President Kim Dae-jung described the airline's safety record as "an embarrassment to the nation" and chose Korean Air's smaller rival, Asiana, for a flight to the United States.

It marked the first time safety was explicitly cited as the reason for stopping a major code-sharing alliance by an airline.

[27] The rating has since been restored as the airline invested billions of dollars to improve safety, upgrade its fleet, install new technology, and overhaul its corporate culture including hiring consultants from Boeing and Delta Air Lines.

In mid-2010, a co-marketing deal with games company Blizzard Entertainment sent a 747-400 and a 737-900 taking to the skies wrapped in StarCraft II branding.

She resigned from some of her duties in late 2014 after she ordered a Korean Air jet to return to the gate to allow a flight attendant to be removed from the aircraft.

As a result of further fallout, Cho Hyun-Ah was later arrested by Korean authorities for violating South Korea's aviation safety laws.

[40] In March 2021, KAL announced the merger with Asiana Airlines will be delayed as foreign authorities have not approved the deal.

[43] On 12 December 2024, Reuters reported that Korean Air had announced the completion of the purchase of debt-laden Asiana Airlines in a deal worth 1.5 trillion won (USD 1.6 billion).

[citation needed] Korean Air's headquarters (대한항공 빌딩/大韓航空 빌딩) is located in Gonghang-dong, Gangseo District, Seoul.

The majority of Korean Air's pilots, ground staff, and flight attendants are based in Seoul and Busan.

The process of the sale of Korean National Airlines to Hanjin in 1969 was supported by Park Chung Hee, the South Korean military general president who seized power of the country through a military coup d'état; and the monopoly of the airline was secured for two decades.

After widening the chaebol branches, the subsidiary corporations of Korean Air include marine and overland transportation businesses, hotels, and real estate among others; and the previous branches included heavy industry, passenger transportation, construction, and a stockbroking business.

A series of incidents involving Korean Air in the 2000s have "revealed an ugly side of the culture within chaebols, South Korea's giant family-run conglomerates".

[51] While this plan did not come to fruition, in 2019, Korean Aerospace Industries nevertheless decided to conduct a two-year study to assess the feasibility of taking the lead on building a turboprop airliner.

Types under consideration for replacement of older widebody aircraft in the fleet include the Boeing 777X and Airbus A350 XWB.

[97] At the International Air Transport Association Annual General Meeting (IATA AGM) in Seoul, Chairman Walter Cho said Korean Air's widebody order is imminent and it is considering an extra order of Airbus A220 aircraft including the developing version Airbus A220-500.

In the late 1990s, Korean Air was "an industry pariah, notorious for fatal crashes" due to its extremely poor safety record and being one of the world's most dangerous airlines.

[116][117][118][119] The last crew fatalities were in the crash of Korean Air Cargo Flight 8509 in 1999 due to instrument malfunction and pilot error.

[120][121] The last aircraft write-off occurred in 2022, when Korean Air Flight 631 overran the runway at Cebu, Philippines while attempting to land under poor weather conditions.

[122] In a 2023 "landmark decision", the state-affiliated Korea Worker's Compensation and Welfare Service ruled that the cancer death of a flight attendant was akin to an industrial accident.

The plaintiff had flown for 25 years on routes to Europe and America, which exposed workers to more cosmic radiation because Earth's magnetic field is weaker over the North Pole.