Some shareholders of Asiana Airlines (OZ, Seoul Incheon) are mulling a class action lawsuit against the airline's board, including Chairman Park Sam-koo, for actions allegedly hurting the brand image, The Korea Herald has reported.
The report comes in the wake of an in-flight catering scandal, wherein the carrier was unable to serve any meals to passengers for a few days in early July.
Asiana had previously inked a contract with HNA Group owned Gate Gourmet Korea (GGK) to supply in-flight catering as of July 1, 2018, after the contract with the previous supplier, Lufthansa Group subsidiary LSG Sky Chef lapsed. In March, GGK suffered a fire in its facilities which forced the company to subcontract the Asiana deal to Sharp DO&CO. DO&CO, a much smaller company in Korea, has an average daily output of 3,000 meals in comparison to Asiana's requirement of 25,000 per day. As such, it was initially unable to meet the terms of the contract.
Speaking during the crisis, Park had to deny that he and other executives were served hot meals onboard despite the lack of such a service for other passengers. Asiana's passengers were given USD30-50 vouchers and were advised to bring own food onboard during the crisis. The situation normalised after a few days. DO&CO's temporary contract with Asiana runs through the end of September.
The local CEO of DO&CO was found dead after an apparent suicide on July 2, shortly after he had told a friend that he felt guilty, ashamed, and extremely overwhelmed by the situation.
Asiana's largest domestic rival, Korean Air (KE, Seoul Incheon), has been battling its own scandals over the past few years. Among the more infamous was the "nut rage" incident in which one of the chairman's daughters forced a departing Asiana flight to return to the terminal and demanded the removal of a cabin crew member after she was served macadamia nuts in a package rather than on a plate.
