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Korean Air, which has reportedly partnered with Europe’s Airbus Defense and Space, failed to show up Monday in a bid for South Korea’s indigenous fighter development program.

However, Korean Air will be given another chance to participate in the KF-X project worth 18.1 trillion won ($16.5 billion) as the Defense Acquisition Program Administration (DAPA) will hold a second auction later this month.

At least two bidders are needed to make the auction valid, but only the Korea Aerospace Industries (KAI) participated in it.

“After closing the bid on Monday, KAI was found to be the sole applier,” a DAPA official said.

“The process for a second bidding will start tomorrow to be closed around the end of this month.”

Korean Air, which has been hammered by the media and investigative authorities over the “nut rage” scandal, was supposed to place a bid jointly with EADS, but they failed to do so.

Korea is planning to develop and produce 120 fighter jets of the F-16 class under the KF-X project to replace its aging fleet of F-4s and F-5s.

KAI, the archrival of Korean Air, is partnering with Lockheed Martin, which beat both EADS and Boeing last year in the KF-III, under which a foreign aerospace company will supply 40 advanced fighter jets to Korea.

The DAPA had planned to choose a preferred bidder next month before a final selection around June, at the earliest, but it will be inevitable to delay the project.

Korean Air and EADS were scheduled to sign a memorandum of understanding to take part in the project, but reportedly failed to do so due to lack of time to finalize the details of their partnership. It was only last week that the two sides reached a verbal agreement.