Asiana's chairman forced out its caterer to raise cash — then flights ran short of meals

In July 2018 Asiana Airlines suffered what the Korea Times called an unprecedented in-flight meal shortage. Its replacement caterer, Gate Gourmet Korea — a joint venture with China's HNA Group that was supposed to start on July 1 — could not supply because a March fire at its new production facility had pushed the launch to October. A three-month stopgap contract with smaller firm Sharp DO & CO failed to meet demand, and chairman Park Sam-koo apologized to customers, employees and subcontractors at the Kumho Asiana headquarters.

The backdrop, according to LSG Sky Chefs, which had catered Asiana for 15 years: in 2016 Kumho Asiana demanded it buy bonds-with-warrants worth ₩160bn issued by group holding company Kumho Holdings, whose bonds HNA later bought. Industry sources said Park wanted the money to rebuild the group, reportedly to regain a 42 per cent stake in Kumho Tire. LSG refused, and Asiana retaliated with the 30-year Gate Gourmet Korea deal. LSG reported Asiana to the Fair Trade Commission for unfair trade practices in August 2017.

Park denied the unfair-practice claims — 'Gate Gourmet offered better prices and quality than LSG', he said, adding LSG had declined to reveal meal unit costs — but analysts called the episode an 'irrational' attempt to line his own pockets, and the same month his 40-year-old daughter, a former full-time housewife with no management experience, was appointed an executive of Kumho Resort. Asiana employees were organising a rally in Gwanghwamun Square over his management.

Weeks of short or missing in-flight meals, an unfair-trade complaint to the Fair Trade Commission from LSG, a staff protest planned — and a public chairman apology.

The catering contract was repurposed as a financing tool for the parent group's rescue, with the airline's operations as the collateral.

A single untried supplier replaced a 15-year incumbent, so one construction fire left the whole fleet short of meals.

The chairmanship denied what its counterparty documented in detail, leaving the FTC complaint and the analyst criticism unanswered.

When a supplier contract exists to finance the parent, the product is no longer the point — and one fire at the new vendor becomes every passenger's problem.

Gate Gourmet Korea's meals were not expected to begin until October, the employee rally was set for that Friday in Gwanghwamun Square, and LSG's complaint to the Fair Trade Commission remained on file — with the chairman's apology doing nothing to quiet questions about his managerial capability and integrity.