Korean Air (KE, Seoul Incheon) has spent USD520,000 on lobbying efforts in the United States since the start of 2022 as it attempts to overcome Department of Justice (DOJ) resistance to its proposed merger with Asiana Airlines.

Data compiled by Open Secrets, a US non-profit that tracks lobbying spending, and reported in the South Korean newspaper JoongAng Ilbo, reveals the airline spent USD400,000 on lobbyists in calendar 2022 and another USD120,000 in the first six months of 2023. Korean Air officially launched its proposed KRW1.8 trillion won (USD1.34 billion) merger bid in late 2020. That year, Open Secrets data did not record the carrier spending anything on lobbying the US government. Likewise, it spent nothing on lobbying in the US in 2019.

The merger requires approval from anti-trust authorities in 14 jurisdictions, with approval coming from the majority relatively swiftly. In 2021, Korean Air also spent nothing on lobbying efforts in the US. However, by 2022, a handful of competition agencies, including in China, Japan, the European Union, United Kingdom, and the United States, had yet to give the merger the nod, and it was in 2022 that the airline began investing in lobbying. While China and the United Kingdom have since approved the merger, albeit with concessions, the European Union, Japan, and United States are yet to do so and the responsible entity in the US, the DOJ, has so far said it is unlikely to approve it.

ch-aviation approached Korean Air for comment.

Separately, some questions are being asked about the point of the merger if Korean Air makes too many concessions to push it over the line. In an amended proposal to the European Commission, Korean Air has offered to vacate certain routes, surrender slots at Rome Fiumicino, Frankfurt International, Paris CDG, and Barcelona El Prat, and sell Asiana's profitable cargo arm. A view is emerging, including among some quarters at Asiana, that the costs of the deal will outweigh its benefits.

"Route transportation rights are not just an asset for the airline but a national asset," a spokesperson from the Asiana Airlines Pilots' Union told Seoul's Sunday Newspaper. "If all of them are returned for the merger, it will be a huge blow to the national economy. It will not do anything good for the entire aviation industry and will result in Korea’s position in the world shrinking."

The European Commission is expected to make its decision on the merger no earlier than January 2024. That decision is expected to have some influence on the DOJ decision, which is not expected before then. This year, the DOJ has blocked a bid by JetBlue Airways to take over Spirit Airlines and also thwarted the Northeast Alliance, a joint venture between JetBlue and American Airlines.