Korean Air, CJ CGV struggle with staffing after social distancing measures lifted

Korean Air and CJ CGV are facing complaints from some of their employees, due to their reluctance to build up their workforces, despite the country's moves to transition to managing COVID-19 as endemic, according to industry officials, Wednesday. Amid the rapidly increasing number of air travelers and cinema audiences in recent weeks, their employees pointed out that continuous overwork resulting from a staffing shortage could even cause problems with taking care of customers in case of emergency. "Korean Air has resumed services that had been simplified during the pandemic, but it has yet to expand its cabin crews," a Korean Air employee wrote last month on Blind, an anonymous chat app for verified employees. "Because there are not enough flight attendants to guard the emergency exits, it is difficult for us to cope with air rage, medical patients and other emergency situations." Data compiled by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport showed that the number of international air travelers rose 259.8% year-on-year to 644,000 last month, following the introduction of the quarantine exemption for fully vaccinated arrivals. Incheon International Airport also said that the average number of daily passengers soared to 29,298 between May 5 and 8, up 347.4% from the previous year. <br/>