Asiana flight numbers are set to begin switching from the OZ code to Korean Air's KE code in November, while the long-delayed mileage integration plan has cleared its final regulatory hurdle.
The two airlines, however, have yet to resolve one of the most sensitive personnel issues in the merger - combining pilot seniority lists built under markedly different recruitment and promotion systems.
The dispute has already spilled into the streets, with Korean Air pilots holding rallies this week as their union presses the company to negotiate the rules for integrating seniority.
Unlike promotions in many workplaces, pilot advancement depends heavily on position in a seniority queue.
Each pilot is assigned a place on a seniority list that helps determine when he or she can enter training for a captain upgrade or move into a higher internal rank.
Pilots higher on the list generally receive those opportunities earlier, while those further down must wait.
Because advancement affects both career progression and pay, being pushed back even several months on a combined list can have consequences lasting years.
New data provided to AJP by the Korean Air Pilots Union (KAPU) shows how differently the two airlines constructed those lists.
Among them, 74 civilian-background pilots had yet to receive regular employee numbers, according to the data.
One of the clearest differences lies in how the two carriers treated military and civilian experience.
At Asiana, military-background pilots were historically placed roughly four years ahead of civilian-background pilots in the seniority structure, according to union data. The gap was far wider than at Korean Air, where the difference was about 10 months, making the treatment of military and civilian experience one of the most contentious issues in combining the lists.
Under Asiana's system, a military-background pilot who received an employee number in 2016 could rank at roughly the same level as a civilian-background pilot from 2012.
That four-year gap becomes sensitive in the merger because preserving Asiana's existing internal order could place some military-background Asiana pilots ahead of Korean Air pilots on the combined list, potentially delaying the latter's future captain upgrades.
“The biggest problem is that the company won’t even discuss seniority integration as part of collective bargaining. We have our own proposals, but the company simply says it is a management issue and refuses to put it on the table,” said Park Sang-mo, KAPU’s vice chairman for external affairs.
Park said pilot groups typically take the lead in negotiating how seniority lists should be combined rather than leaving management to determine the ranking unilaterally.
The dispute is further complicated by how the seniority queue is determined. For Korean Air pilots, a regular employee number effectively sets their place in the seniority queue, but that number can differ from the employee number assigned when they first join the airline. Asiana pilots, meanwhile, are assigned their regular employee numbers upon joining.
This creates another point of contention over whether seniority should be based on the initial joining date or the date the regular employee number was issued.
“Normally, the pilot unions work out an integrated seniority list and bring it to the company,” Park said. “That is how the process is supposed to work, but in our case, the company came up with its own formula and simply presented it to us.”
Park said the union has raised the issue in negotiations for about a year, but the company has continued to reject seniority integration itself as a bargaining item.
KAPU also argues that the proposed approach could disadvantage some Korean Air pilots with previous civilian flying experience because their seniority would be calculated from the date they received a regular employee number rather than the date they first joined the airline.
They say some Korean Air pilots could be placed about 10 months lower on the combined list than if their original entry dates were recognized.
The issue is particularly sensitive because the two carriers historically recruited civilian pilots under different requirements.
Korean Air required civilian applicants to have roughly 1,000 hours of flying experience, while Asiana's threshold was significantly lower, at around 300 hours.
Korean Air says its merger formula would still leave its civilian-background pilots ahead in the promotion queue.
The airline says the gap between military- and civilian-background pilots is about nine months at Korean Air, compared with roughly four years at Asiana. On that basis, Korean Air says its civilian pilots would remain about three years and three months ahead on average after the lists are combined.
The effects are not uniform on the Asiana side either.
An Asiana senior captain with four years in the rank, for example, could have expected to advance to the next captain grade in January 2028 under Asiana's existing timetable. Under the post-merger Korean Air schedule, that transition would instead come in September 2028, about nine months later.
The example illustrates why individual pilots can view the same integration formula differently depending on their current rank and position in the promotion cycle. Some may benefit relatively quickly from Korean Air's pay structure, while others could wait longer for their next promotion.
Choi Do-sung, chairman of the Asiana Pilots Union (APU), was reluctant to comment in detail on the dispute between Korean Air and its pilots, saying he did not want to add to tensions ahead of the merger.
“Given that we are the airline being absorbed, we think the company’s plan is reasonable overall and does not create any major problems for pilots,” Choi said.
APU does not plan separate collective action over the seniority integration.
“The company explained it to both airlines and notified us without any negotiations or agreement over the seniority issue,” Park said. “That is the essence of the problem.”
The two carriers are scheduled to formally merge on Dec. 17.
“Pilots work as two people together in the cockpit,” Park said. “If they are carrying unresolved dissatisfaction with each other, how can there be genuine integration?”
Korean Air says its proposal is designed to preserve each airline’s existing seniority structure while minimizing disruption for pilots on both sides.
AJP Takeaways
- Pilot seniority remains unresolved ahead of the Korean Air-Asiana merger.
- Military-civilian ranking gaps differ sharply between the two airlines.
- KAPU wants negotiations, while APU broadly accepts the company’s plan.
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