Korean Air Lines, the only domestic carrier to post a profit last year, decided to pay employees and executives a performance bonus equal to 393% of monthly base salary.
Even though Korean Air Lines logged its highest-ever revenue last year, the size of performance bonuses for employees and executives shrank from a year earlier. Operating profit fell from the prior year. Profitability appears to have worsened due to a strong dollar and intensifying competition.
According to the airline industry on Mar. 5, Korean Air Lines recently notified employees and executives that it will pay an average 393% of monthly base salary as a performance bonus. The bonus will be paid if the financial statements are approved at the regular shareholders meeting on the 26th of this month.
Korean Air Lines assesses safety indicators such as whether accidents occurred and, if targets are met, pays an annual safety incentive equal to 100% of monthly base salary. Including this, the performance bonuses that Korean Air Lines employees and executives receive this year amount to 493% of monthly base salary.
That is slightly smaller than the performance bonus and safety incentive paid by Korean Air Lines last year. Still, after expanding the performance bonus cap in 2023, the company has paid bonuses equal to more than 300% of base salary for three straight years.
Through a 2023 labor-management agreement, Korean Air Lines raised the cap on performance bonuses from 300% to 500%. It then paid 407% of base salary as a performance bonus in 2024 and 500% of base salary in 2025.
As of the end of September last year, Korean Air Lines had 18,347 employees, with an average tenure of 18.3 years. Average pay per person came to 97 million won.
Korean Air Lines' revenue last year was 16.5019 trillion won, up 2.4% from a year earlier. It was the highest revenue since the company was founded. However, operating profit fell 19.1% in the same period to 1.5393 trillion won.
Profitability worsened due to factors such as a strong dollar and intensifying competition, but compared with rivals that posted losses, it is being viewed as a solid result.
Asiana Airlines' revenue last year fell 12.6% from a year earlier to 7.2668 trillion won, and operating income turned to a loss of 345.2 billion won. T'way Air logged revenue of 1.7982 trillion won in the same period, up 17%, but posted an operating loss of 265.5 billion won, with the loss widening by 253.2 billion won.
Jeju Air's revenue in the same period fell 18.4% to 1.5899 trillion won, and operating income turned to a loss of 110.9 billion won. Jin Air also saw revenue in the same period fall 5.5% to 1.3811 trillion won, and operating income turned to a loss of 19.2 billion won.