The race to commercialize urban air mobility services is heating up as national flag carrier Korean Air and retail giant Lotte on Tuesday announced new projects to help introduce drone airport shuttles. Korean Air said it has signed an agreement with Hyundai Motor, Incheon International Airport Corp., KT and Hyundai E&C to help build UAM infrastructure and improve social acceptance toward the new means of public transport. The airline will share its experience of operating passenger and ca

Airlines are slowly expanding international flights from Korea as the country takes gradual steps to open up and live with the pandemic. Low-cost carrier Jin Air said on Tuesday it will expand the number of flights for the Incheon-Guam route from two to four every week starting Nov. 28. As a gradual return to normal life begins, the airline said it plans to fly once every day by the end of this year. For golf tourists, Jin Air also said it will launch a non-scheduled flight to the city of Kot

Small business revenue has returned to pre-pandemic levels after the government kicked off the “living with COVID-19” scheme designed to gradually open up the economy, according to new data. According to Korea Credit Data’s database on Monday, revenue from small businesses during the first week of November saw a 10.4 percent jump on average compared to the same time one year ago. It was also up 2.6 percent compared to the previous week. Compared to the same week in 2019, befo

At this year’s annual Seoul International Cafe Show which took place earlier this month, automation and smart devices such as drip coffee-making robots enjoyed the spotlight. “From smart coffee roasters to drip coffee-making robots, there were various opportunities to get a taste of the ‘smart cafe’ experience,” one official at the event said. These are the latest sign of automation and a demographic shift in South Korea where cashier-free stores have increasingly

US Trade Representative Katherine Chi Tai will visit Seoul on Thursday, according to government officials on Sunday. It will mark the first time in 10 years for the country’s chief trade negotiator to visit South Korea since Free Trade Agreement talks were held in 2011. It is expected that Tai will discuss a number of economic and trade issues with South Korean counterparts including the semiconductor supply chain and a digital trade agreement. Other topics include incentives for South

The Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry warned on Wednesday that South Korea’s potential growth rate could drop to the mid-one percent range as a result of low birth rates and a drop in labor productivity. In a report released on Wednesday, the chamber’s sustainable growth initiative division said South Korea’s total fertility rate hit a record low of 0.84 last year as it has been also hit with the fastest aging population among OECD members. Combined with a drop in labor

Business leaders in South Korea and the US have called for the protection of confidential business information and urged to ensure the autonomy of the private sector as the post-COVID global supply chain is being realigned. During the 33rd Plenary Meeting of Korea-US & US-KOREA Business Councils on Tuesday, an event jointly held by the Federation of Korean Industries and the US Chamber of Commerce, issues such as bilateral relations, climate change and building a resilient global supply cha

Yoon Seok-youl, the main opposition People Power Party’s standard-bearer for the next presidential election, has no known experience in economic matters. The novice politician was until March the country’s prosecutor general. But having been born to an economist father, Yoon has openly affiliated himself with two long-dead economists, Milton Friedman and Ludwig von Mises. Both were champions of free-market policies, minimal government intervention and laissez-faire capitalism. B

The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy said on Thursday that the leaders of South Korea and Hungary and business leaders from South Korea and the Visegrad Group met to discuss cooperation in sectors such as EV batteries and biotechnology. The Visegrad Group, also known as the V4 countries, include Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia. The V4-Korea Business Forum was held in Budapest, Hungary on Wednesday where President Moon Jae-in is visiting on a state visit until Thursday. Dur

CJ Group said on Wednesday it would invest more than 10 trillion won over the next three years to cultivate four growth engines -- culture, platform, wellness and sustainability. In a video message addressed to employees, Chairman Lee Jay-hyun shared the mid-term business plan – the first time the leader of the conglomerate explained his vision to all employees since 2010, the group said. “With COVID-19 being unpredictable, the world is now going through a fundamental and rapid ch

As South Korea shifts gear toward “living with COVID-19,” after-work dinners, or hoesik, are among the first things to return.  After a nearly 1 1/2-year hiatus, the return of office dinners, which often involve binge drinking and are met with mixed reactions from workers, have been welcomed by the hospitality industry and small-business owners hit hard by the pandemic. At Korean barbeque restaurant Blue Roof Town in Seoul’s Mapo district, one of the more popular areas f

As South Korea began “living with COVID-19” on Monday, lifting curfews on restaurants and cafes, major shopping events and discount coupon programs also kicked off in hopes of unleashing pent-up consumer demand. This year’s annual Korea Sale Festa, supported by the central government and 17 local governments, will involve over 2,000 companies -- the largest number since the first event in 2016, according to the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy. Tech giants including Sa

Korean Air has received an “integrated A grade” for its ESG efforts from the nonprofit ESG rating agency Korea Corporate Governance Service.　 The national flag carrier achieved the marks for the second year running, a recent ESG rating report by KCGS revealed. When broken down by category, the airline received an A for corporate governance, an improvement from last year. The higher score was thanks to the separation of the CEO and the board of directors, appointment of a woman ou

Pay gaps between occupations grew wider amid the COVID-19 pandemic as wages in the tech and TV broadcasting industries saw some of the biggest growth while workers in the aviation and tourism sectors took a hit, new data has revealed. According to new data released Sunday by the Korea Economic Research Institute, jobs at web portal, data processing and web hosting companies saw their pay grow by 9 million won ($7,666) on average to 37.9 million won during the first half of this year compared wi

Shinsegae Group heir and vice chairman Chung Yong-jin has reportedly purchased a mansion worth 22.5 billion won ($19.2 million) in Beverly Hills, California. According to online US real estate media outlet Dirt, Chung has “purchased a lavish home in the affluent Flats neighborhood of Beverly Hills.” The seller was Aan Sinanta, an Indonesian coal mining tycoon, who paid $12.6 million for the property back in 2012, the website reported. The gated property, which was built in 2012, h

South Korean low-cost carrier AeroK says it is hiring flight attendants and forgoing any hair and makeup requirements. The Cheongju-based airline, which launched its first scheduled flight earlier this year, said there are also no requirements in terms of academic background, appearance and age in its recent job postings. “We will not be asking for a photo during the document screening process and will only ask for foreign language skills and extracurricular activities during the first p

Technology plays a key role in a nation’s economic security, which is gaining ground as a new force behind the shifting world order, Seoul National University professor Lee Jeong-dong said Tuesday. “Defending a country was the basic concept of military security. However, with supply chains spanning across the globe now, it is only possible with economic security. And at the core of economic security is technological sovereignty,” said Lee, speaking at the fourth Korea Herald

Consumers are expected to spend more money during the year-end season this year amid growing excitement over the government’s gradual plan to live with COVID-19, a new survey has found. The survey, conducted on e-commerce platforms Gmarket and Auction earlier this month, showed consumers are willing to spend some 641,000 won ($546) on average during the platforms’ annual shopping event “Big Smile Day” – up nearly 200,000 won from one year ago. Among the respondent

For years, Starbucks Korea enjoyed a boost in sales from its seasonal merchandise such as tumblers -- one of the franchise’s more popular items, often seen as an eco-friendly substitute for single-use cups. But when the coffeehouse chain unveiled a new range of Halloween-inspired items on social media earlier this month, the mood appeared to have shifted. “Introducing the Halloween merchandise mysteriously enchanted and kept in a wizard’s secret room,” a tweet from the

Korean Air said on Friday it has signed a memorandum of understanding with Insitu, a Boeing subsidiary, for technical cooperation to develop a lightweight and modularized tactical vertical takeoff and landing aircraft, also known as a VTOL. The cooperation will see the companies combine their core technologies -- Korean Air’s expertise in unmanned aerial vehicle development and production and Insitu’s state-of-the-art UAV technologies including high-performance mission equipment, sy