Lotte Corp., the holding company for the nation’s fifth-largest conglomerate, will hold a shareholders meeting March 27 and seek approval to reappoint current Chairman Shin Dong-bin as executive director, the company said Friday.  The executive director normally serves two years, according to the group. Shin currently serves as executive director for Lotte Corp. and other affiliates including Lotte Confectionery, Lotte Chemical, Lotte Chilsung, Canon Korea and FRL Korea.  Shi

As the aviation industry has been hit hard from the coronavirus outbreak, South Korean air carriers were flying more air cargo planes than flights carrying passengers, industry sources said Friday.  More countries have been announcing entry restrictions of South Koreans over virus concerns. The number has reached 123 as of Friday morning.  This has led to South Korea’s largest full-service air carrier Korean Air to operate only 18 flights per day, compared to 131 flights opera

Officials disinfect BMW Group Korea’s showroom in Seoul on Thursday. The German automaker’s Korean unit said it has been emphasizing contactless customer service and strengthening disinfection at its showrooms to prevent the spread of COVID-19.  BMW Group Korea has donated 800 million won ($664,000) to the Community Chest of Korea to help fight the coronavirus. By Kim Da-sol (ddd@heraldcorp.com)

After the National Assembly passed a controversial bill last week that dealt a severe blow to ride-hailing service Tada, service operator VCNC has decided to “indefinitely terminate” the service on April 10, according to the company on Thursday.  VCNC said that it has requested 30 percent of its 20 employees resign, following the company’s plan to downsize the workforce due to the suspension of the service.  On Friday last week, Korean lawmakers voted to pass the r

The Genesis G90, a luxury flagship sedan from Hyundai Motor, has been picked as the safest sedan by the US institute that evaluates vehicle safety, the automaker said Thursday.  According to the US Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, the G90 was designated the Top Safety Pick+, the highest possible honor, becoming the third and last Genesis sedan to earn the designation. In February, the Genesis G70 and G80 were also named the Top Safety Pick+.  Established in 1959, the US inst

Lotte Duty Free, South Korea’s biggest duty-free retailer by sales, said Thursday it will temporarily close its store at Gimpo International Airport amid a rapid decline in number of passengers over COVID-19 spread.  The outlet at Gimpo airport is largely used by passengers who travel on short-distance routes to Japan, China and Taiwan.  But due to the suspension of such routes over coronavirus concerns, the number of flights plummeted to one to two flights per day as of Monda

With South Korean air carriers slashing the number of routes they operate over the COVID-19 spread, their plan to lease new aircrafts to increase competitiveness has hit turbulence, according to industry sources Wednesday.  Asiana Airlines’ budget carrier Air Busan had signed up to lease two Airbus 321 Neo LR aircrafts and is scheduled to receive one this month. The model can fly up to 7,400 kilometers, covering midrange routes such as to Singapore, Jakarta and Bali.  Accordin

The number of passengers using Incheon International Airport in the first week of March dropped by 80 percent on-year, the lowest since 2003, according to the airport operator Tuesday. Incheon International Airport Corp. said that from March 1-8 the number of passengers who transited South Korea’s gateway airport came at 298,307, less than one-fifth of 1,536,594 last year.  During the first week of March, an average number of passengers using Incheon airport was around 37,000. 

Renewable energy -- utilizing wind, solar, ocean tides and geothermal heat -- has been in the limelight for mitigating global climate change over the past decade.  South Korea also joined the global move by announcing “Renewable Energy 3020” in 2017, which aims to increase power generation from renewable resources to 20 percent. As of 2017, its renewable energy proportion was 7.6 percent. According to professor Miranda A. Schreurs of Environmental and Climate Policy at Techni

South Korea’s aviation industry is likely to see losses from the coronavirus outbreak snowball to at least 5 trillion won ($4.2 billion) by June, according to industry sources on Sunday. With more international routes shutting down as countries announce entry bans on people traveling from Korea, at least 5.8 trillion won of losses are expected from the country’s eight air carriers, based on the calculation from their flight records as of the fourth week of February.  But such

Korean Air said Thursday that it had begun checks on all passengers’ temperatures on international routes to check for the COVID-19, as part of the company’s preventive measures. The air carrier said it had secured eight thermal imaging cameras and handheld, non-contact infrared thermometers to check if a passenger’s temperature was below 37.5 Celsius degrees.  Passengers with body temperatures above 37.5 Celsius degrees will be refused boarding, Korean Air said. 

Hyundai Motor Group on Thursday unveiled images of its luxury brand Genesis’ third-generation G80. The new G80 comes back in seven years. It is Genesis’ flagship model since 2008 when it was launched. An accumulated 210,000 units of G80 have been sold in the local market as of 2019.  Genesis Design Center chief Lee Sang-yub said that the latest G80 has been designed under the concept “athletic elegance,” putting its representative design features such as quad lamp

Following a sharp drop in the number of passengers and route suspensions due to spread of COVID-19, South Korean air carriers are flying smaller planes while parking their unused aircrafts within the airport facilities, according to industry sources Wednesday.  Full-service carrier Korean Air said that it would reduce the number of seats on its Incheon-Los Angeles route from 407 to 277 by switching from the A380-8 aircraft to the smaller B777-300 until March 14.  Asiana Airlines has

Hyundai Motor Group Executive Vice Chairman Chung Euisun sent a letter to employees Tuesday highlighting the group’s all-out efforts to secure safety and minimize business risk under its contingency plan. Chung said in an email that the group has been “actively cooperating with the government-led measures,” vowing to fully support employees’ safety with “all available resources.” He added that the group’s affiliates have been monitoring the COVID-19 o

South Korea’s Land, Infrastructure and Transport Minister Kim Hyun-mi contacted her Vietnamese counterpart to express regret over a recent incident where a Korean air carrier was denied permission to land in Hanoi and was forced to turn back, government sources said Tuesday. In a letter to the Vietnamese aviation authorities, Kim wrote that it presented “a serious safety issue to order a plane to land in an unfamiliar airport while it is in flight.”  She reportedly also

Amid the continued spike in COVID-19 cases in South Korea and Italy, Korean air carriers said Tuesday that they would temporarily halt service to Italian cities.  According to the full-service carrier Korean Air, it has canceled all flights on its Incheon-Rome route from March 5 to April 25. This is the first time all flights on that route have been canceled, since its launch in 1991.  Another full-service carrier, Asiana Airlines, decided to halt its Incheon-Rome flights March 8-28

South Korean full-service carriers Korean Air and Asiana Airlines are reviewing sending additional ferry flights -- empty planes sent just to pick up passengers -- to Vietnam and Turkey, countries that travelers from Korea cannot enter amid the spread of the new coronavirus, according to the industry on Monday. Korean Air Flight 679 is set to depart from Incheon Airport on Tuesday and the airline is reviewing whether to send it as a ferry flight, it said.  “We will have to see the

Hyundai Motor Group stopped operations of its Ulsan manufacturing plant’s second factory Friday after an employee who works there was confirmed with COVID-19. According to the automaker, the factory has suspended operations since 11:30 a.m. Friday. The worker was confirmed to be infected that morning. The company said it has disinfected the site and put five co-workers into self-isolation.  A Hyundai Motor employee said the duration of the shutdown will be decided later based on t

Amid the falling number of passengers and suspension of routes due to the coronavirus outbreak, chief executive officers of Korean budget carriers on Friday released a joint statement asking for the government’s support.  The country’s six low-cost carriers -- Air Busan, Air Seoul, Eastar Jet, Jeju Air, Jin Air and T’way -- said in a joint statement that the “aviation industry has been falling apart” since the nationwide boycott of trips to Japan last year an

Hanjin KAL, the holding company of airline-to-logistics conglomerate Hanjin Group, said Thursday it was looking to sell its non-core hotel assets to improve its financial health and shareholder value.  Hanjin KAL said invitations to bid for the assets had been sent to 12 firms including real estate consulting firms, accounting firms and asset management firms.  On Feb. 7, the company decided during the board meeting to sell assets related to its loss-making leisure and hotel busines