Ahead of a possible sale, Asiana Airlines is cutting costs by offering the workforce voluntary retirement and unpaid leave options.
Parent company Kumho Asiana Group recently revealed it plans to sell off its core airline business and has begun accepting voluntary retirement from senior desk-based workers, and will lgrant requests for unpaid leave.
It is eligible only for office employees and those in sales and airport service departments, but not customer facing and operational workers including flight crew.
"Asiana will receive applications for voluntary retirement from employees with over 15 years at the company. Workers eligible include office employees and those in the sales and airport service departments," an airline official said.
"We are expanding the application scope for unpaid leave, which we have already been carrying out in line with efforts to cut costs."
It is however suspending unprofitable routes such as Khabarovsk and Sakhalin in Russia, and Chicago, and will reduce frequencies on others, while cutting its fleet size.
Kumho Asiana Group executives hope to regain market confidence and backing from its creditors.
CEO Han Chang-soo pledged to sell off assets to avert a growing liquidity crisis and has started restructuring the business by consolidating business teams to increase efficiencies.
Kumho Group reluctantly agreed to offload its 33 percent stake in Asiana in exchange for a KRW1.6 trillion (about US$1.2 billion) rescue package.
Several Korean conglomerates including Hanwha are reportedly interested in buying the airline, which could fetch up to KRW2 trillion.
