Korean Air faces maintenance capacity crunch from Asiana acquisition

Korean Air faces a growing maintenance capacity challenge, as its acquisition of Asiana Airlines creates a fleet of more than 230 aircraft at a time when heavy-maintenance slots remain increasingly difficult to secure across Asia. The integrated carrier, scheduled to launch in December, will operate the larger fleet and employ more than 4,000 maintenance workers. It will require more airframe, engine and component maintenance that must be handled internally or secured through outside maintenance, repair and operations (MRO) providers. However, constrained global MRO capacity and a shortage of international heavy-maintenance slots have become a material operational risk to Korean Air. Securing wide-body base-maintenance slots has become particularly difficult across Southeast Asia. Korean Air is responding by expanding its own capabilities. In November last year, the airline and Incheon International Airport Corp. (IIAC) agreed to invest 176 billion won ($130 million) to build a next-generation maintenance hangar at the airport's High-Tech Aviation Complex. The facility will be able to ac