Yesterday, trade unions at Asiana Airlines lodged objections against the merger with Korean Air Lines.

The opposition comes after more than a fortnight since Air Incheon won the bid to acquire Asiana’s cargo arm as a condition of a merger deal.

The union representing Asiana’s flight crew and a union representing office staff claimed that the absorption of Asiana by KAL would cause “national and public harm”.

Both unions called on the Korea Development Bank, Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, and Fair Trade Commission, who have jurisdiction over this deal, to “review it from the ground-up and find another buyer.”

The unions claim that the merger will also result in a reduction in flights between South Korea, Europe and the United States to the detriment for consumers.

The unions stated: “The so called mega-carrier promoted by KAL has become nothing more that a façade, serving only to allow chief executive Cho Won Tae (Walter Cho), to defend his managerial rights.”

Asiana’s union, reminiscent of HMM employees’ opposition to Harim Group’s failed acquisition of HMM claims Air Incheon “is like a shrimp trying swallow a whale”.

The South Korean government wants KAL to buy the heavily indebted Asiana. To satisfy the European Commission’s Anti-trust Authority, KAL will transfer its Seoul to Frankfurt routes to T’way Air, a low-cost carrier from South Korea.

The union’s response is: “KAL decided to give back an extensive number of transportation rights in order to proceed with this unreasonable merger. This will result in the transfer trillions of won ($billions) in annual revenue from domestic carriers to foreign airlines.”

13 countries have approved the takeover of Asiana by KAL, with the US still pending. KAL hopes to complete the divestment by October of Asiana’s freight arm.