Korean Air acquires 10% stake in Canada's second largest airline...strengthening its presence in North America

Korean Air (003490) has secured a 10% stake in WestJet, Canada's second largest airline, and is set to begin full scale expansion into the North American market.
Korean Air held a board meeting on the 9th and decided to acquire a 10% stake in WestJet.
The acquisition price is $220 million (approximately 32 billion yen). Specifically, the company will acquire 11.01% of WestJet's stock, which is equivalent to 1.0% of WestJet's stock.
Delta Air Lines also acquired 15% of WestJet (for $330 million, or about 48 billion yen), of which 2.3% will be sold and transferred to Air France-KLM.
Korean Air explained that it made this investment to build a strategic partnership to expand its North American network, including Canada.
Korean Air has the advantage of having a wide network in the area. Through joint operations with WestJet, Korean Air will be able to more finely connect the air route network between Korea and Canada, as well as North America.
Canada is the world's second largest country by land area and highly dependent on air traffic. It also has the world's seventh-largest aviation market, worth $33 billion (approximately 5 trillion yen) as of last year.
Through this acquisition, Korean Air plans to increase its codeshare with WestJet, improve access to major cities in Canada, and expand into North and Latin America.
Korean Air is also planning to explore new destinations in Latin America. Currently, Korean Air is in the process of acquiring and merging with Asiana Airlines, and will continue to develop new business through various strategic partnerships in the global aviation market.
The company plans to actively promote increased convenience for customers and expansion of its network.