The daughter of Korean Air chairman Cho Yang-ho has resigned from the family-run airline,
the
Financial Times
reported.
Cho Hyun-ah, also known as Heather Cho, received widespread public criticism after a report that she delayed a flight because she was angry at the way a flight attendant served her macadamia nuts.
Cho, who was an executive vice president in charge of in-flight service at the airline, was on flight KE806 from New York to Incheon, South Korea. The plane had left the gate and was en route to the runway when the flight attendant served the nuts to Cho without asking her first, and in an unopened package instead of on a plate, according to
a report in the
New York Times
.
She confronted the flight attendant and was displeased with his response, so she ordered the flight to return to the gate. There were about 250 passengers aboard the plane, the
FT
noted.
Her father accepted her resignation “after chairing a board meeting over the incident as soon as he arrived in Incheon on [December 9] from an overseas business trip,” the
FT
article said.
Cho Hyun-ah chairs the Hanjin Group, the family-run conglomerate that operates Korean Air and also runs shipping, logistics and hotel businesses, the
New York Times
article said. His two other children also have executive positions in the conglomerate, the article noted.
“The episode made Ms. Cho the latest symbol of excess at [South Korea's] conglomerates, known as chaebol, whose controlling families have long been accused of running their companies like dynasties,” the
New York Times
article said. (Sources:
Financial Times
, Dec. 9, 2014;
New York Times
, Dec. 9, 2014.)
-
2263 reads