Korean Air average 55.6M won in first half, up 9M won from 2022

The 2023 half-year report revealed taht Korean Air, which has overcome the COVID-19 virus pandemic and is working to normalize its operations, announced on the 14th that it has paid employees an average of 9 million won higher than last year. Find out in

According to the 2023 half-year report by Korean Air and Hanjin KAL, the average salary per Korean Air employee in the first half was 55.6 million won, up from 46.6 million won last year. The main factor was an increase in allowances due to the expansion of international flights.

Hanjin KAL, the holding company of the Hanjin Group, also paid performance bonuses for the first time in the first half of this year since the holding company was established in 2013. Overall salaries also increased significantly compared to the previous year.

Executive salaries have also increased significantly. From April 2020, when the COVID-19 epidemic began, to the first half of last year, 50% of the total monthly salary for the vice president, 40% for the managing director, and 30% for the managing director were returned. However, no payback was made this year.

Until the first half of last year, Hanjin Group Chairman Cho Won-tae received only half his monthly salary. In the first half of this year, Chairman Cho's total salary was about 5.57 billion won. It received 2.61213 billion won from Korean Air and 2.96 billion won from Hanjin KAL.

In its report, Korean Air said, “Since the second half of last year, we have been working to normalize management, and we have stopped returning executive compensation, which we have been doing for the past three years." It also added, "The remuneration was calculated according to the director's remuneration payment standards, and was finalized after a series of procedures such as preliminary review by the compensation committee and approval of the board of directors."

Korean Air has recently made a good start toward a turnaround. In the second quarter, sales increased by 6% year-on-year to KRW 3.5354 trillion, supported by a rapid recovery in passenger demand, and operating profit reached KRW 468.0 billion. In particular, the passenger sector, which is the main business sector, increased supply by 20% and sales amounted to 2.221 trillion won, a 154% increase compared to the same period last year.