Korean Air hiring flight attendants

Korean Air’s reputation may be in the gutter due to ongoing investigations into its owner family, but it’s hiring.

Korea’s largest airline is looking to take on 600 new flight attendants this year, the company said on Tuesday.

Korean Air began recruiting 200 new flight attendants on Tuesday. The company already hired 200 attendants in the early half of the year, and is currently in the middle of hiring 100 experienced flight attendants.

Korean Air usually takes on about 500 new flight attendants every year, so this year’s hiring represents a bit of a bump. A company spokesperson said that it increased its hiring to keep up with its expanding flight routes.

Last year, the company hired only 180 new flight attendants, so it decided to hire more this year.

Most of the company’s statements in recent months have been in response to allegations against the Cho family, which owns Korean Air.

A series of investigations into the family began in April, when Korean Air Chairman Cho Yang-ho’s youngest daughter Cho Hyun-min was caught throwing a drink at an advertising executive during a meeting in March. Since then, the airline has been busy responding to complaints rather than promoting its business.

Korean Air is expecting steep growth in its business this year. It moved to Incheon International Airport’s second terminal, which opened in January, and started a joint venture partnership with U.S. airline Delta in May.

However, the scandalous stories of the Cho family have dominated coverage of the company. Various family members are under investigation for different charges and allegations including smuggling, tax evasion and unfair trading through affiliates.

Most recently, Lee Myung-hee, the wife of the company’s chairman, was summoned by the Korea Immigration Service on Monday for about 13 hours of questioning into whether she illegally hired Filipino housekeepers.

While only ethnic Koreans or immigrants married to Koreans can work as housekeepers in Korea, Lee is accused of making the airline’s branch in the Philippines recruit around 10 housekeepers and dispatch them to Korea, supposedly as Korean Air trainees. According to multiple local media reports, Lee acknowledged that she hired Filipino housekeepers, but denied that she was involved in their hiring process.

BY KIM JEE-HEE [kim.jeehee@joongang.co.kr]