Airline joins Asiana to serve chuseok meal to elderly residents on Wednesday

Korean Air, Asiana volunteers clean trail at Gaehwasan

Korean Air's 'Sarangnanumo' group improves living conditions in Thailand

Employees of Korean Air, Asiana Airlines and Korean Air C&D Services pose for a photo after taking part in a chuseok meal service for elderly residents. [Korean Air]
Employees of Korean Air, Asiana Airlines and Korean Air C&D Services pose for a photo after taking part in a chuseok meal service for elderly residents. [Korean Air]

Korean Air is continuing a range of volunteer activities for communities at home and abroad.

Korean Air announced Monday that it had joined Asiana Airlines and Korean Air C&D Services on Wednesday to run a chuseok meal service at a senior welfare center in Gangseo-gu, Seoul.

About 60 employees from the three companies took part, serving chuseok food to roughly 600 elderly residents and delivering gift packages. Chefs from Korean Air C&D Services, which handles the airline's in-flight catering, cooked on-site to give the holiday spread a distinctly airline character.

Employees served a meal that included mushroom chicken broth, braised beef short ribs, beef and vegetable japchae, minced meat patties, assorted vegetable banchan and fruit salad. After the meal, they handed out gift bundles containing songpyeon rice cakes, muffins, sweet red bean bread, yugwa confections, sikhye rice punch and bananas, along with warm chuseok greetings.

A volunteer group called "Du Son Moa," made up of employees from both Korean Air and Asiana Airlines, carried out an environmental cleanup along about 1.8 kilometers of the Gaehwasan trail in Gangseo-gu, Seoul, on Friday.

Twelve employees from the aviation safety divisions of both carriers participated. They walked the trail together, picking up litter in what is known as "plogging" — a combination of jogging and picking up trash. The outing also gave employees from the two airlines a chance to strengthen communication and cooperation.

Korean Air's in-house volunteer group, Sarangnanumo, traveled to the Chiang Dao area of northern Thailand from Sept. 10 to Sept. 14 to carry out service activities in two impoverished Daraang tribal villages. Chiang Dao sits on a highland plateau at an altitude of 2,100 meters and lacks basic infrastructure — including electricity, running water and educational facilities. The Daraang people who live there are recognized as one of the most economically disadvantaged ethnic minorities in Thailand.

Volunteers visited the villages of Pangdeng and Huai Pong, providing support to local residents. They also helped pave and gravel a road in Pangdeng to improve mobility for villagers, contributing to better living conditions in the area.

Volunteers also ran activities for local children and joined in a village cultural performance and food-sharing event. They spent time interacting with residents and children, fostering warm exchanges with the community.

"Korean Air is fulfilling its corporate social responsibility through a wide range of volunteer activities both at home and abroad," a company official said. "We will consistently continue our sharing activities for local communities and the environment, and sustain diverse social contribution programs that provide practical help to neighbors here and overseas."

Meanwhile, Korean Air has resolved one of the last major hurdles before its merger with Asiana Airlines — the integration of the two carriers' mileage programs. After roughly 15 months of negotiations with the Korea Fair Trade Commission, the integration plan received final approval, and the process of launching a unified Korean Air in December is expected to accelerate.


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