Among companies getting millions in US small business loans: South Korea’s biggest airline

Korean Air’s US operation received millions in federal small-business loans aimed to soften the blow of Covid-19, federal data shows. The carrier received $5-$10m in US loans intended to help small businesses keep employees on their payrolls, according to a list of the largest recipients of loans in the Paycheck Protection Program released by the Trump administration on Monday. The Seoul-based airline, South Korea’s largest, has about 500 employees in the US, and a spokeswoman said it applied for the loan because more than half of the carrier’s operation is suspended because of the pandemic. The funds will be used toward its payroll costs of its US staff, including those in its large cargo business and in office jobs like marketing and human resources, the spokeswoman said. Korean Air is a major cargo carrier with routes to or from the Americas comprising about 40% of its cargo sales.<br/>