South Korea’s leading budget carrier Jeju Air Co. will extensively add more flights to popular overseas routes and procure three additional 180-seat aircraft as a part of aggressive moves to secure its leadership in the local budget carrier market.

Jeju Air released its business plan for the second half of this year on Monday and said that it will up the number of overseas destinations departing from Korea. The budget flyer will simultaneously launch three new flights to Sapporo of Japan, Kota Kinabalu of Malaysia, and Phuket of Thailand from Incheon, Korea on June 20.

Sapporo, a city located in the northern part of Japan, is a popular destination for Korean travelers. About 445,000 people flew to Sapporo from Korea last year, sharply rising by 41 percent compared to the previous year. If Jeju Air wins only 25 percent of the demand that is currently covered by three other Korean airline companies Korean Air Lines Co., Jin Air Co., and Tway Air Co., it will be able to rake in over 20 billion won ($17 million) from the new addition. Jeju Air currently flies to five locations in Japan including Tokyo, Osaka, and Nagoya.

Jeju Air will also open its service to two more international destinations - Kota Kinabalu in Malaysia and Phuket in Thailand. The Korean budget carrier will launch a new flight to Kota Kinabalu, commencing a service to Malaysia, and will also begin a non-scheduled flight to Thailand’s famous holiday destination Phuket with a plan to operate a regular schedule in the future.

The low-cost carrier will also begin two additional non-scheduled flight service connecting Busan, southern port city of Korea, and resort destinations Saipan and Vietnam’s Hanoi this month. Also, the company will launch 21 additional non-scheduled flights to 16 cities across China, departing from regional cities of Korea. The budget carrier is determined to win travelers on summer vacation by extending its flight schedule to Jeju, a southern island of Korea, from Seoul by 300 flights starting this Saturday until September 19, said a Jeju Air official.

The Korean budget carrier will put three new aircraft in service this year to accommodate its plan for expansion. It will begin the operation of one of three new aircraft, Boeing B737-800, this month, and the rest within this year. By then it will be running a fleet of 26 aircraft with three additions.

“The competition between the local budget carriers will get fiercer to take the leadership in the market as the nation’s sixth low-cost carrier Air Seoul is also about to join the race by embarking its service as early as this week,” said an unnamed airline industry expert.

According to the transport ministry, the number of travels who flew Korea’s full-service carriers Korean Air Lines and Asiana Airlines fell 0.2 percent on year to 3.8 million flyers this year as of April while the number of budget carrier flyers soared 22.5 percent on year to 2.5 million people. Jeju Air dominated the low-cost carrier market with 26.8 percent market share, although slightly dropping from 28.2 percent share from the same period last year as Jin Air and Eastar Jet Co. made fast strides.

By Kim Jung-hwan

[ⓒ Pulse by Maeil Business News Korea & mk.co.kr, All rights reserved]