Korean Air has announced it will introduce ‘no-show’ fees for passengers who fail to provide advance notice that they no longer require a flight booking.

Korean Air confirmed fees will be applied to tickets purchased from October 1st for passengers who either do not cancel their reservation prior to the scheduled time of departure or passengers who do not board their flight after check-in has been completed.

Passengers who fail to turn up for flights to/from North America, Latin America, Europe and Oceania on long haul routes will be charged $US120.

Those flying to/from south-east and south-west Asia on medium haul routes (except for those classified as long haul) will be charged $US70 and between Korea and Japan/China or between Japan and China on short haul routes $US50.

No-shows on domestic flights in Korea will be charged KRW8,000.

No-show passengers booked to travel on award tickets will have either 12,000 miles, 7,000 miles or 5,000 miles deducted from their accounts, calculated according to the length of the flight they have not turned up for.

No show passengers booked on award tickets for any domestic flight will have 500 miles deducted.

The no-show fees will be waived for infants under two years of age, not occupying a seat.

Korean Air has been charging domestic flight no-show fees since October 2008 and has been able to offer the cancelled seats back to waiting customers, minimising seat wastage.

Korean Air’s new no-show policy is in line with many other world-wide airlines, including Singapore Airlines, Emirates and JAL, which have all introduced no-show fees.

Korean Air hopes that with the expanded policy, passengers who in the past could not purchase tickets on flights showing full but due to no-shows consequently left with empty seats, will in the future have the opportunity to travel.