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

Hyundai Motor Group has donated 5 billion won ($4.1 million) to Hope Bridge Association of the National Disaster Relief to support medical personnel and offer relief goods amid the quickly escalating COVID-19 outbreak across the country.  The donation was made to especially help people in Daegu and North Gyeongsang Province, the company said.  Hyundai Motor Group and the Hope Bridge Association said the donation will be used to offer products needed for the prevention of epidemics a

Hyundai Motor Group Executive Vice Chairman Chung Euisun has resigned as an inside executive director of the group’s steel affiliate, Hyundai Steel, the company said Wednesday.  Chung aims to focus on the group’s core automotive business as the group seeks to transform itself into a smart mobility solutions provider, according to the company.  Chung served in his executive role at Hyundai Steel since 2012 but rarely made an appearance at its executive directors’ me

Incheon International Airport Corp. began taking bids for existing airport duty-free operations on Wednesday, accepting proposals from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., industry sources said Wednesday. Eight duty-free operators including Shilla, Lotte, Shinsegae and midsized operators like SM which currently operate business over 11,645 square meters in the duty-free zone need to submit proposals including the bid price, if they wish to continue to operate. Their contracts end in August.  Beyond the bi

The South Korean government has decided to restrict the export of face masks until April 30, amid concerns that supplies are running short as COVID-19 spreads nationwide.  Manufacturers will be allowed to export up to 10 percent of the masks they produce each day.  The Ministry of Food and Drug Safety said Tuesday that the measure is authorized under Article 6 of the Price Stabilization Act, which stipulates that regulations can be adjusted in emergency situations. Mask manufacture

Kumho Tire said Tuesday three of its products had won 2019 Good Design Awards in the transportation design category.  The Good Design Awards is a global design competition which began in 1950, awarded by the Chicago Athenaeum Museum of Architecture and Design for the most innovative and cutting-edge industrial products and graphic designs of the year.  The Korean tire manufacturer said its tires Majesty 9, Ecsta PA51 and WinterCraft Wi51 have won the awards.  Majesty 9 is a ne

Delta Air Lines, the third-largest shareholder of Hanjin KAL which owns Korean Air, has bought 1 percent additional stake to support Hanjin Group Chairman Cho Won-tae, industry sources said Monday.  The US air carrier reportedly bought 114 shares of Hanjin KAL stake on Thursday and Friday via Goldman Sachs for around 60 billion won ($49 million). Delta now owns 11 percent stake in the holding firm of Hanjin Group.  Currently, local activist fund Korea Corporate Governance Improvemen

With global motor shows either being delayed or likely to be called off due to coronavirus concerns, automakers are likely to face setbacks in their plans to unveil their latest models, according to industry sources Sunday. Organizers of Asia’s largest auto event, Beijing Motor Show slated for April 21-30, have announced that it has been “indefinitely delayed.”  The event has been “postponed until further notice,” and a decision will be taken after closely w

Hyundai Motor’s global hydrogen advertisement featuring BTS is aired via Marriott Marquis Hotel’s digital signage display at Times Square in New York on Friday.  In the advertisement, which played for an hour, BTS members explained the company’s vision and efforts to achieve a future hydrogen society through its hydrogen fuel cell car Nexo. (ddd@heraldcorp.com)

Sitting 480 meters above sea level, Namhansanseong is a mountain fortress 25 kilometers southeast of Seoul. The fortress stretches 12 kilometers, and is said to have been built during the Unified Silla Kingdom in the seventh century. Namhansanseong’s significance as a fortress emerged in 1624 when King Injo designated the city to serve as an emergency capital and administrative center in the Joseon era in times of war. Namhansanseong is protected dually under the Cultural Heritag

Hyundai Motor Group said Thursday that it has developed a self-controlling gearshift that measures traffic ahead and predicts optimized gearing, which it said is the first of its kind in the world. While existing smart drive modes work by learning the pattern of the drivers, the new information and communication technology-connected transmission system recognizes road situations and automatically changes gears for speed, the automaker said. The new technology will be adopted in upcoming models

Hanjin KAL, the holding firm of Hanjin Group which owns the country’s largest air carrier Korean Air, said Thursday that it has partnered with US startup accelerator Plug and Play for business diversification. Headquartered in Silicon Valley, Plug and Play has previously clinched development partnerships with global information and communications technology firms including Google, PayPal, Dropbox and Logitech. It has also worked with Coca-Cola, Mercedes-Benz, Singapore Airlines and Americ

The Seoul Central District Court on Wednesday found Socar CEO Lee Jae-woong and VCNC CEO Park Jae-wook not guilty of violating transportation laws with their ride service that is strongly opposed by the taxi industry. Socar is the parent of VCNC, which runs Tada, an 11-seat van-hailing mobile app service. The court said in a ruling that Tada is seen as an “innovative mobility business” that cannot be categorized based on the existing transportation business frame.  &ldqu

Korean full-service carrier Asiana Airlines said Tuesday that all executives, including the CEO, have offered to resign to improve the company’s financial health, which has been severely hurt by the latest outbreak of the coronavirus that has cut into aviation services.  In a letter sent to Asiana employees, the air carrier’s CEO Han Chang-soo said that the company has activated an emergency business management due to the crisis following the epidemic outbreak.  Han said