Korean Air to retain Asiana’s catering supplier after merger

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Korean Air Lines Co. will retain Asiana Airline Inc.’s catering supplier, Gate Gourmet Korea (GGK), after the merger, leaving the combined airline with two in-flight catering…

Korean Air Lines Co. will retain Asiana Airline Inc.’s catering supplier, Gate Gourmet Korea (GGK), after the merger, leaving the combined airline with two in-flight catering providers.

Gategroup Holding AG, GGK’s Swiss parent company, said Thursday it would continue supplying in-flight meals following the merger of Korean Air and Asiana, extending its existing catering relationship with Asiana to the combined airline through GGK.

A Korean Air official also said the airline would continue working with GGK alongside its own catering subsidiary, Korean Air Catering & Duty Free Services Co. (KCND), to ensure an uninterrupted supply of in-flight meals for the merged carrier.

The airlines have not disclosed how catering volumes will be allocated between the two suppliers or whether the existing exclusive contract will be modified. However, Asiana’s current catering volume is expected to remain with GGK, according to industry sources.

Korean Air had sought to bring its catering business back in-house ahead of the merger. In March, it acquired an 80 percent stake in KCND from private equity firm Hahn & Co. for approximately 776.6 billion won ($581.3 million), adding to its existing 20 percent holding to make the company a wholly owned subsidiary. The airline had sold the 80 percent stake in 2020 to secure liquidity during the Covid-19 pandemic.

KCND reported 656.6 billion won in revenue and 94.9 billion won in operating profit last year, translating into an operating margin of approximately 14.5 percent. The figures include its in-flight duty-free supply business and therefore do not reflect the margin of its catering operations alone.

GGK, which supplies in-flight meals to Asiana, posted revenue of 199.5 billion won and operating profit of 59.1 billion won last year, for an operating margin of 29.6 percent. Its margin stood at 27.8 percent in 2023 and 29.4 percent in 2024.

Absorbing Asiana’s catering volumes into KCND’s operations would have allowed Korean Air to expand its…

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