Lease governance and comparability in the Korean Air–Asiana merger: A four-dimensional framework under IFRS 16 and ASC 842

This study develops a four-dimensional framework to evaluate how regulatory divergence between ASC 842 and IFRS 16 distorts financial metrics, operational control assessments, and asset valuations during airline consolidations. It argues that comparability problems do not arise from accounting treatment alone, but from the interaction of operational control doctrine, lease form, and acquisition-date valuation in airline mergers. The study uses a comparative case framework centered on Korean Air-Asiana as the primary post-COVID merger case, with Air France-KLM and United-Continental as supporting reporting and merger benchmarks. Particular attention is given to dry versus wet lease classification, right-of-use asset and lease liability recognition, EBITDA distortion, leverage effects, and merger-related lease remeasurement. The study concludes that lease reform improved transparency but did not eliminate analytical inconsistency, especially in cross-border airline competition and distressed merger settings.