Korean Air Unveils Safety Reforms Program

Responding to growing international concern about its poor safety record, the airline unveiled a $200-million program of “aggressive reforms” to “regain the confidence of the world’s traveling community and our alliance partners.” The carrier’s announcement followed the latest of several published reports, this one in the Wall Street Journal, chronicling a spate of Korean Air accidents in the last two years that often involved pilot error. Korean Air said its program includes hiring more pilots from non-Korean airlines, providing a new English-language training program for pilots, installing new safety warning systems throughout its fleet and outsourcing flight training to FlightSafetyBoeing, a company jointly owned by Boeing Co. and Berkshire Hathaway Inc. The airline also said that, by year’s end, it expects to enter talks about resuming its passenger-sharing pacts with Delta Air Lines and Air France, which were suspended earlier this year in light of Korean Air’s safety woes.