Korean Air, South Korea's flagship carrier, began procedures to integrate with Asiana Airlines following the approval of the business combination, including the dispatching of executives and removal of Asiana's previous logo from aircraft wings.

According to the domestic airline industry on Friday, Korean Air announced plans to send eight executives in flight operation, maintenance, safety, finance and human resources to Asiana Airlines to oversee the integration.

Korean Air is expected to announce additional personnel appointments after Asiana's new company chief and board of directors are confirmed at an extraordinary shareholders' meeting on January 16.

Korean Air pledged to ensure a step-by-step integration under stability.

Korean Air spent one-point-five trillion won, or around one billion U.S. dollars, to acquire 131-point-57 million new shares issued by Asiana to take over the country's second-largest carrier in the one-point-eight-trillion-won merger deal.