Jin Air’s second-quarter profit falls 88 percent

Jin Air, the budget affiliate of Korean Air, said Friday that its second-quarter net profit fell 88 percent from a year earlier on increased fuel costs and a decline in travel demand.

Net profit for the three months that ended on June 30 came to 1 billion won ($886,000), down from 8.1 billion won a year earlier, the company said in a regulatory filing.

Operating profit dropped 50 percent to 6.2 billion won in the second quarter from 12.5 billion won a year ago. Meanwhile, sales rose 18 percent on-year to 226.5 billion won.

The earnings results came as the South Korean government has been mulling whether to cancel the airline’s license over its illegal appointment of a foreign national to its board of directors.

Under Korean aviation law, only Koreans can be registered as the directors of an airline.

Jin Air named Cho Hyun-min – the younger daughter of Korean Air Chairman Cho Yang-ho – as its director between 2010 and 2016, even though she is legally an American citizen.