Asiana Airlines on Friday said it would once again appeal a decision by the nation’s Transport Ministry to suspend its services to San Francisco for 45 days as a penalty for a passenger jet accident in the U.S. city last year.

The ministry had not announced the results as of press time, but Asiana officials said they had heard of the move.

The penalty was confirmed following a second round of deliberations held on the request of Korea’s second-largest airliner after the 45-day suspension was first handed down last month.

Asiana said it would appeal the decision, saying that the penalty was too harsh.

Industry watchers predict that the airliner could see 15 billion won ($13.6 million) in sales losses under the suspension, while its image would also suffer a blow.

On the same day, Asiana said it had graduated from a voluntary agreement it had with creditors to hand over management of the firm until it was found capable of normal operations.

In a meeting of eight creditor banks chaired by Korea Development Bank, representatives from the lenders agreed that Asiana’s management can be trusted to normally draw in funds, cope with the company’s debt and in general run the firm without outside assistance.

Asiana has been under creditor oversight since January 2010 after its parent conglomerate ― Kumho Asiana Group ― experienced a severe liquidity crunch after acquiring Daewoo Engineering & Construction Co.

The conglomerate filed for a corporate workout in late 2009 to deal with the situation.

By Park Han-na and news reports
(hnpark@heraldcorp.com)