Korean carrier Asiana Airlines may be looking to liquidate some of their assets in the near future due to some financial difficulties. Recently appointed co-Chief Executive Han Chang-Soo stated in a company wide letter that there has been a task-force created to oversee some of the company’s restructuring.
Asiana hopes to boost short-term liquidity and help boost it’s credit rating with the sales, in the letter Han Chang-Soo was adamant that the credit rating had not dropped but had simply been put on watch by some key lenders. The letter also stated that the airline would see some network restructuring which will see the cutting of 4 routes and a discontinuation of their first class product. It is unknown at this time if there’s plans for any more routing changes. Currently the new changes affect the airlines routes from Seoul Incheon airport to Delhi, Sakhalin, Khabarovsk as of July 8th of this year with services to Chicago being suspended on October 27th.
Asiana currently has a fleet of 82 aircraft including 25 Airbus A320s, 15 A330-300s , eight Boeing 767s and nine 777 series aircraft. The airline is currently in the process of replacing some of their narrow-body with the newer Airbus A320 neo. The airline also currently has a total of six A350s with an order for 24 more.
Asiana saw a total operating profit of $158m for 2018 but after maintenance charges and other provisions it saw a loss of $22.2m. This revised figure was disclosed after a dispute between the airline and an auditor which saw the resignation of the company’s previous co-CEO and chairmen of Kumho Asiana Group, the airline’s parent company recently.
Kumho Industrial also announced that they will be selling their 33% stake in Asiana to satisfy demands from their key lender, Korean Development Bank (KDB). They have not indicated when the sale will take place or how much they expect to sell their stake for.
