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Asiana Airlines to Suspend Service to SFO Following Korea High Court Ruling

SAN FRANCISCO INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT (CBS SF) -- Beleaguered Asiana Airlines has been forced to suspend daily San Francisco-to-Seoul service starting March 3 through April 16.

In 2013, an Asiana jetliner, attempting to land at SFO, clipped a seawall and crashed. Three passengers died and 180 were hurt, leading to the order to suspend service by South Korea's Transport Ministry. Asiana appealed that order for years but the Korea supreme court just upheld the punishment.

The suspension will hurt an airline which is already facing loads of debt and it will inconvenience travelers looking for low-cost options.

South Korean officials will ask competing airlines to use larger airplanes during the suspension. For customers, that's still no guarantee they won't see higher fares.

For Eilo Betoudhana, who drove to SFO from Tracy to to send his mother-in-law off to Korea on a special trip, spending hundreds of dollars for a ticket isn't easy.

"Looking at prices, in comparison to United and everything else, Asiana had a good price and that's why we purchased our ticket from them," Betoudhana said.

In a separate case two years ago, Asiana Airlines agreed to pay San Francisco $3.5 million for airport repairs and to cover legal costs for the city incurred by the 2013 crash.

© Copyright 2019 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. KPIX correspondent Kenny Choi contributed to this report

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