Jin Air

Is Jin Air safe?

Yes. Jin Air has flown since 2008 without a fatal accident or a written-off aircraft, it passes the IATA safety audit, and its parent Korean Air supplies most of its aircraft and much of its maintenance. The marks against it are maintenance fines from the transport ministry (MOLIT), the most recent in November 2022, and an older fleet of 737-800s and 777-200ERs. We score it 81, ahead of T'way (79) and well ahead of Jeju Air (68).

The airline is about to get much bigger. On 21 August 2026 Jin Air, Air Busan and Air Seoul signed a merger, and the three are due to fly as one airline under the Jin Air name from 17 March 2027.

What changes when Air Busan and Air Seoul join?

Air Busan and Air Seoul were Asiana's low-cost airlines. Korean Air's takeover of Asiana brought all three budget airlines into the Hanjin group, and the merger of Korean Air and Asiana themselves is due on 17 December 2026. Under the August agreement Jin Air takes over Air Busan's and Air Seoul's assets, staff and legal status. Shareholders vote in December 2026.

The safety question is the operating certificate. Jin Air plans to bring Air Busan's and Air Seoul's aircraft and crews onto its own certificate in stages, and MOLIT must inspect the combined operation before the launch date. The three airlines have already started joint pilot and cabin crew training and are standardising their manuals. The combined fleet will be about 58 aircraft, the largest of any Korean low-cost airline.

Until the merger closes, Air Busan (BX) and Air Seoul (RS) fly under their own certificates, so we describe them here but do not count their records in Jin Air's score:

• Air Busan flew 24 Airbus A320-family jets in July 2024, eight of them A321neos. On 28 January 2025 a fire broke out in an overhead bin of its A321 HL7763 as it prepared to leave Busan. All 176 people evacuated by slide, three with serious injuries, and the aircraft burned out. Interim findings point to a passenger's power bank. Air Busan's only recent fine was 5 million won in April 2024 for flying below its cleared altitude.
• Air Seoul flew five A321s in July 2024. We found no accident on record.

Neither Air Busan nor Air Seoul appears on IATA's member list, so membership does not confirm an IOSAIOSAThe IATA Operational Safety Audit, an international audit of an airline's safety management and operations. Every IATA member must pass it.More in the glossary audit for them as it does for Jin Air. Moving them onto Jin Air's certificate should bring them under that audit.

What has Jin Air been fined for?

More than its clean accident record suggests. MOLIT figures for 2014 to 2019 show 7 billion won in fines for Jin Air, the third-highest of any Korean airline. Almost all of it was one fine. On 19 September 2017 a Jin Air 777 arrived at Guam with a fault in its left engine, which gave off fuel vapour. The ministry found that maintenance had not followed the manual, had worked on a part unrelated to the fault, reported the aircraft as fit and let it fly on. In June 2018 it fined Jin Air 6 billion won, suspended the captain for 30 days and an engineer for 60 days, and asked prosecutors to investigate whether the head of maintenance had played the fault down. Jin Air had said that fuel left in the line caused the vapour and that an engine run showed the aircraft was fit to fly.

In November 2018 a Jin Air first officer failed a breath test at Cheongju before a 7:25 a.m. departure, after drinking late the night before. He was suspended for 90 days and the airline fined 420 million won.

In January 2016 the ministry found a worn door hinge on a 737 that had returned to Cebu with a gap in its front door, although Jin Air had first said the door was simply not closed properly.

Since then the record is lighter. From 2021 to 2025 MOLIT fined Jin Air twice, for 1.34 billion won in total, almost all of it in November 2022 for operating an aircraft with a defect. That is less than a third of T'way's total for the same years.

What does Jin Air fly?

Mostly 737-800s. In July 2024 Jin Air had 19 of them, three 737-900s, three 737-8s and four 777-200ERs, which it uses on its busiest holiday routes. Korean Air leases it its 737-8s, and from late 2026 the first Airbus types arrive: an A321 from Asiana and new A321neos.

The fleet is old for a budget airline. Hana Securities counted 12 aircraft over 20 years old among the 59 jets of the three merging airlines in August 2026, and only 19 under ten years. The 2025 events on record were mechanical: a 737-800 engine that banged and flamed after take-off from Busan in February, unreliable airspeed on a Gimpo departure in March, and a 777 engine shut down after take-off from Okinawa in October. Each crew returned and landed safely.

Who oversees Jin Air?

South Korea's transport ministry, which holds FAA IASAFAA IASAThe US FAA's check of whether a country's aviation regulator meets ICAO standards. Category 1 means it does; Category 2 means it does not.More in the glossary Category 1. No Korean airline is on the EU Air Safety ListEU Air Safety ListThe European Commission's list of airlines banned or restricted from flying in EU airspace because they do not meet international safety standards.More in the glossary, and Jin Air is an IATA member, which requires IOSAIOSAThe IATA Operational Safety Audit, an international audit of an airline's safety management and operations. Every IATA member must pass it.More in the glossary. We give it 84 for oversight, the same as other Korean airlines, because the ministry approved the concrete localizer berm that made the Muan crash so deadly.

Flying Jin Air in practice

If you book a flight after March 2027 that was sold as Air Busan or Air Seoul, check the aircraft type and operator on your booking; during the move onto one certificate you may see either name. On any short Japan route, keep your belt fastened when seated: Jin Air's only recorded injury accident was a flight attendant thrown down by turbulence after the seat belt sign went off. And keep power banks in your hand luggage, where crew can reach them, as the Air Busan fire showed.

How we scored it

The accident record (91) has no deaths or lost aircraft in 18 years. Fleet (64) is the weakest factor, with old 737-800s and 777s still in service. Serious incidents (66) reflect a long list of fines that has shortened since 2022, and oversight (84) matches other Korean airlines. Overall 81.