Korean Air: Surviving COVID-19 by Pivoting to Cargo
Hyelyun Alice Park and K. Ravi Kumar
Marshall School of Business, University of Southern California, USA
Volume 19: 2025, pp. 15-52; ABSTRACT
It was 2019 and COVID-19, the pandemic, had paralyzed the global airline industry. Airports stood deserted, international
borders slammed shut, and passenger flights, the lifeblood of Korean Air, came to a screeching halt. Overnight, most flights
were grounded, turning bustling runways into vast parking lots of idle planes. For the airline industry, it was a financial
freefall. That’s when Walter Cho, CEO of Korean Air and his team turned their eyes to cargo. Korean Air had a fleet of 23
dedicated freighters that were running to capacity. With passenger flights globally curtailed, unfulfilled cargo demand was
increasing. The decision for Korean Air to strategically, start using its idle passenger aircraft for cargo-only flights is
the subject of the case. But how many? And where: loading into the belly holds, the overhead bins, cargo seat bags or converting
passenger planes into ‘preighters’ by removing all seats. And all the risks involved.
Keywords: airline industry, Covid pandemic, crisis management, innovative decisions, leadership.
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