Korean Air has confirmed that electronic stun guns were used on passengers during flights.
The carrier told the BBC it first introduced electric stun guns in 2002.
It now carries at least one set of weapons on every aircraft, with two sets on its Airbus A380 superjumbos.
A Korean Air spokesman said that of reported five incidents, three involved the gun being fired.
In those instances, the gun used compressed air to fire darts that release a 50,000-volt electric charge, designed to temporarily paralyse the target.
In the two other cases, the weapon was used as a stun gun, with the electric current fired directly into the passenger, with the weapon held against them at close range.
Korean Air would not give further details about what prompted each incident, when they occurred or what happened to the passengers.
But it confirmed all took place while the aircraft were airborne.
Korean Air is believed to be the only major carrier to routinely have the weapons on board.
The airline is ramping up training for staff using the guns after the handling on an incident in which US singer Richard Marx helped retrain an unruly passenger.
Both Marx and his wife Daisy Fuentes used social media afterwards to claim that the crew was “ill-trained”.
A spokesman for he airline said that current protocol limited cabin crews to using Tasers [a brand name of electric stun gun] “only during life threatening situation or when the safety of an aircraft is threatened”.