International Smuggling
An increasing number of Korean flight attendants are being caught smuggling luxury goods.
According to the Korea Customs Service, the monetary amount of smuggling by flight attendants has reached 589 million won (US$553,112) between 2010 and August of this year.
A total of 172 items were smuggled during the period, and 113 of them were designer bags, followed by clothing (15), cosmetics (11), and watches (10). In 2014, six out of 15 smuggled items were bags. Korean Air has been involved in nine exposed cases since 2012 and fined 1.072 million won (US$1,006). The number of cases was four for Asiana Airlines during the same period.
Relatively more strict tax allowances are applied to flight attendants. Specifically, they have to report to customs any purchase exceeding US$100. A smuggled article worth 20 million won (US$18,783) or higher is subject to criminal prosecution. However, they are frequently exempted from customs inspections, because they are airport workers.
“We took disciplinary action against the employees in question, although we cannot disclose the details of the punishment,” said Korean Air. Asiana Airlines added, “We held a personnel committee meeting to decide on the level of punishment.”