Korean Air Chairman Cho Yang-ho was indicted on Monday on charges including embezzlement and breach of trust, South Korean prosecutors said, adding to a string of woes at the country’s biggest airline group. Cho is the latest head of a big business group, or chaebol, to face legal challenges in South Korea since President Moon Jae-in took office in 2017 with a pledge to curb the excessive power of family-owned conglomerates and improve their governance. A Seoul prosecutors’ office on Monday said Cho took 19.6b won ($17m) commission from 2003 through 2018 by setting up a trading company to broker aircraft equipment and in-flight duty-free goods purchase deals for Korean Air, causing the same amount of loss to the airline. Korean Air declined to comment and did not make Cho available for comment. Also on Monday, Emily Cho, the chairman’s youngest daughter, was cleared of all charges related to her allegedly throwing a drink at two business meeting attendees in April, because the attendees did not want to press charges, the Seoul Southern District Prosecutors’ office said.<br/>
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Delta and WestJet are touting the expansion prospects of their proposed joint venture, promising at least 20% growth and six new routes in the market if approved. The carriers would offer "new or expanded service on at least 20 nonstop routes", including new service between Chicago and Toronto, and additional connections to each other's hubs if regulators grant them antitrust immunity, Delta and WestJet say in their application to US authorities on 10 October. Consumer benefits, a factor that the US DOT weighs highly in its evaluation of such pacts, would amount to at least $241m annually from the combination of additional service and easier access to both airlines' networks, they say. The joint venture will "align Delta’s and WestJet’s incentives to offer more flights and lower fares in the large US-Canada transborder market", they claim. Delta and WestJet would be able to coordinate schedules and fares, jointly sell and market flights, and align operations in other ways under a metal-neutral joint venture.<br/>