Korean Air Executive Vp-Corporate Strategy And Planning Kyung Hwan Chang pauses when asked to identify KE executives' primary concern in mapping the airline's direction. After several moments of silence in his office at the carrier's Seoul headquarters, he decides to forego spin and offer candor. "Survival at this point," he admits to ATW, a startling but honest assessment by one of the company's top officials. Such a sentiment likely could be expressed in airline executive offices throughout the world as the industry struggles to cope with high levels of financial uncertainty and a persistently weak revenue environment. Korean Air, which this month celebrates its 40th anniversary as a private company owned by the Hanjin Group conglomerate, experienced one of its more difficult years in 2008. It posted a full-year net loss of KRW1.96 trillion ($1.4 billion), including consecutive quarterly deficits of more than KRW600 billion in the third and fourth quarters, losses on a scale it had not experienced since the mid-1990s.
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