[2] On November 16, 2020, South Korea's Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport announced Korean Air's proposed acquisition of Asiana Airlines.

[11][10] In March 2021, Korean Air announced that its merger with Asiana Airlines would be delayed pending approval from relevant competition authorities.

[19] In August 2023, the Korea Economic Daily reported that the Korean Development Bank was seeking a plan B in preparation for the proposed merger's collapse.

On September 27, 2023, Yonhap reported that Korean Air had submitted an amended application to the European Commission, proposing divestment of Asiana's cargo division and giving up slots at some EU airports, including Barcelona, Rome, Paris, and Frankfurt to satisfy competition concerns.

[23] After Korean Air switched to a new plan that consisted of acquiring a 63.88% stake of Asiana Airlines instead of a full merger, approval was granted by the U.S. Department of Justice in December 2024, which allowed the acquisition to be completed.

[36] On March 17, 2023, the European Commission (EC) released the results of an in-depth investigation concluding that the merger would restrict competition with a concentration of market power between Europe and Korea.

[38] In October 2023, Korean Air announced proposed remedies to address the Commission's concerns by divesting routes to Barcelona, Frankfurt, Paris, and Rome and surrendering them (alongside slots at the relevant airports) to T'way Air, a South Korean low-cost carrier, while leasing Airbus A330 aircraft with flight crew.

[43] However, Yonhap has reported that the Commission has not resumed its investigation due to "missing information" in the submission provided by Korean Air and Asiana.

[47] The Fair Trade Commission (FTC) approved the merger on February 22, 2022 with conditional clearance requiring the combined airline to give up some of their airport slots and transportation rights in certain regions.

[48][49][50] The Commission assessed that the merger would result in a monopoly on 26 international routes and 14 domestic routes but deferred to overseas authorities to on corrective action by granting 10 year conditional clearance with the following conditions:[51][52][53] The UK's Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) postponed the review of the merger in November 2022, citing monopoly concerns, giving Korean Air time to propose a plan to resolve competition concerns.

[54] Korean Air proposed transferring slots for seven weekly operation rights to Virgin Atlantic to launch a London–Heathrow to Seoul–Incheon route as a remedy.