Japan Airlines (JAL) has acquired a stake in Hanjin KAL, the holding company of South Korea’s Korean Air, joining as an ally of Hanjin Group Chairman Cho Won-tae. While the stake size and acquisition price were not disclosed, expectations are growing that JAL will serve as a white knight given that the investment comes at a time of heightened potential for a management control dispute with Hoban Group.<\/p>\n
According to aviation industry sources on the 4th, JAL announced the previous day in Tokyo that it had acquired Hanjin KAL shares while signing a strategic partnership with Korean Air. Korean Air explained that “JAL independently decided to invest after considering Hanjin KAL’s long-term market value.” No large-shareholding disclosure \u2014 required for stakes of 5% or more \u2014 has been filed.<\/p>\n
The investment comes as Hoban Group has rapidly expanded its stake in Hanjin KAL, narrowing the gap with Chairman Cho’s camp. Hoban Group raised its Hanjin KAL stake to 20.15% in July. Given that Chairman Cho and related parties held 20.57% based on the semi-annual report, the gap stood at a mere 0.42 percentage points.<\/p>\n
If JAL’s acquired stake is classified as friendly to Chairman Cho’s camp, it would provide substantial support for defending management control. Looking at Hanjin KAL’s current major shareholder structure, Delta Air Lines holds 14.90%, Korea Development Bank holds 10.58%, and the National Pension Service holds 5.11%. Among these, Delta Air Lines and Korea Development Bank are classified as friendly to Chairman Cho’s camp. Adding JAL’s stake would push Chairman Cho’s camp well above 46%, overwhelming Hoban Group’s position.<\/p>\n
ShareholderStakeClassificationChairman Cho Won-tae and related parties20.57%Largest shareholder (as of June 2026 semi-annual report)Hoban Group20.15%Second-largest shareholder; expanded stake in July 2026Delta Air Lines14.90%Friendly to Chairman Cho; participated as white knight in 2019 control disputeKorea Development Bank10.58%Friendly to Chairman Cho; acquired during Korean Air-Asiana integration supportNational Pension Service5.11%\u2014Japan Airlines (JAL)Under 5% (estimated)Newly acquired; no large-shareholding disclosure filed<\/p>\n
With the gap between Chairman Cho’s camp and Hoban Group at just 0.42 percentage points, analysts note that even JAL’s estimated sub-5% minority stake could influence the control structure depending on how it is classified.<\/p>\n
JAL’s emergence is particularly significant given the possibility of Korea Development Bank selling its stake. There are observations that KDB may divest its 10.58% holding to recover public funds following the Korean Air-Asiana Airlines integration. Concerns have been raised that if KDB \u2014 which served as a white knight during the 2019 control dispute between Chairman Cho and his sister, former Vice President Cho Hyun-ah \u2014 were to sell its stake, a full-blown dispute with Hoban Group could ensue.<\/p>\n
The market reacted immediately to the stake acquisition news. Hanjin KAL shares had remained in the 100,000 won range (approximately $74) through late July, but climbed to 129,800 won (approximately $96) on September 1 when the stake acquisition and partnership news emerged, and further to 133,800 won (approximately $99) on the 3rd, continuing an upward trend. Expectations of a renewed control dispute were directly reflected in the share price. Korean Air and Asiana Airlines shares also posted gains of around 3% on the day of the partnership announcement, showing synchronized strength.<\/p>\n
Chairman Cho has a track record of bringing in overseas airlines as allies through business cooperation. During the 2019 dispute with the three-party alliance, Delta Air Lines acquired a stake in Hanjin KAL, lending support to Chairman Cho’s camp. Delta has since continued to expand its cooperation with Korean Air, including pursuing a joint acquisition of Canada’s WestJet.<\/p>\n
The strategic partnership with JAL extends beyond a simple equity investment to encompass the full spectrum of business operations. Despite belonging to different global airline alliances \u2014 Korean Air is a member of SkyTeam while JAL belongs to oneworld \u2014 the two carriers have decided to build an individual cooperative relationship that transcends these affiliations.<\/p>\n
Cooperation will first be strengthened in the passenger segment. Korean Air has applied codesharing across all Korea-Japan routes since 2014, and with the December merger with Asiana Airlines, it will include Asiana’s Korea-Japan routes in the joint operation. Korean Air’s Japan routes, currently at approximately 250 weekly flights, are expected to expand to around 400 after integration.<\/p>\n
The scope of cooperation also widens in the cargo business. The two carriers have agreed to jointly utilize cargo terminals they have built around the world. Shared terminal usage can simultaneously deliver two benefits: expansion of the global sales network and reduction of fixed logistics costs. Personnel exchanges will also begin to address airport ground handling labor shortages. The two airlines plan to activate human resource exchanges, including mutual use of crew training facilities.<\/p>\n
The two carriers will form a task force to explore cooperation models in new business areas. Starting with aircraft maintenance, repair, and overhaul (MRO), they plan to concretize cooperation in sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) adoption for carbon neutrality and future businesses such as urban air mobility (UAM). They will also pursue joint investment in startups to secure source technologies for new businesses.<\/p>\n
The cooperative history between Korean Air and JAL spans well over 60 years. The two carriers began collaboration in 1963, two years before the normalization of diplomatic relations between South Korea and Japan. At that time, Korean Air’s predecessor, Korean Air Lines Co., and JAL signed an “Agreement on the Basic Concept of Bilateral Cooperation.” With intergovernmental agreements difficult to conclude at the time, the two airlines first created a framework for agreement and obtained approval from both governments, playing a role in opening the door to diplomatic normalization between the two countries.<\/p>\n
The following year, in 1964, Korea-Japan routes were established. Korean Air opened the Seoul-Osaka route, while JAL opened the Seoul-Tokyo route. In 1967, the Busan-Fukuoka route was added, laying the foundation for expanded exchanges between the two countries. Since 2004, the carriers have applied their own codesharing arrangements to broaden cooperation, and since 2016, they have operated a partnership program allowing Korean Air customers to earn Korean Air miles when flying on JAL aircraft.<\/p>\n
Choi Jeong-ho, Korean Air’s Executive Vice President, said, “Through this strategic partnership, we will be able to combine the outstanding infrastructure and know-how of both companies to maximize customer benefits,” adding, “We will continue to strengthen our competitiveness in the aviation market and provide the best possible service to passengers through close cooperation with global partners.”<\/p>\n
With this cooperation, Korean Air has further strengthened its global network competitiveness ahead of its integration with Asiana Airlines. JAL has likewise solidified its position on Korea-Japan routes while securing opportunities to realize economies of scale in cargo, maintenance, and new business areas. Amid a trend of expanding individual alliances between airlines in the global aviation industry, attention is focused on whether this cross-border cooperation model between two carriers belonging to different alliances will set a precedent for future industry restructuring.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Japan Airlines (JAL) has acquired a stake in Hanjin KAL, the holding company of South Korea’s Korean Air,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":143850,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[14616,73071,43459,12174,44040,73070,8677,171,566,73072,73073],"class_list":["post-143849","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-korea","tag-asiana-airlines","tag-cho-won-tae","tag-delta-air-lines","tag-hanjin-kal","tag-hoban-group","tag-japan-airlines-jal","tag-korea-development-bank","tag-korean","tag-korean-air","tag-sustainable-aviation-fuel-saf","tag-urban-air-mobility-uam"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/143849","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=143849"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/143849\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/143850"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=143849"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=143849"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=143849"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}