Jeju Air jumps on flights to China trend with Fuzhou route

Jeju Air, Korea’s largest budget carrier, said yesterday that it will launch flights to the Chinese city of Fuzhou this week, in the latest push by Korean airlines to expand their services in the world’s most populous country.

The carrier said it will begin two weekly flights starting Friday, connecting Korea’s southern resort island of Jeju to the capital of east China’s Fujian Province. It said the upcoming service will be available on Wednesdays and Sundays with the 189-seat Boeing 737-800 passenger jet.

Still, the carrier has to win approval from Korean and Chinese aviation authorities each month to operate the route, according to Jeju Air spokeswoman Yoon Ye-il.

She said the new route is designed to attract Chinese tourists to Jeju, one of the most popular tourist destinations in Korea.

The total number of Chinese tourists visiting Korea stood at 2.84 million in 2012, up 27.8 percent from a year earlier, according to the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism.

The latest move came a day after Eastar Jet, another Korean budget airline, announced its plans to launch a regular flight linking Korea’s central city of Cheongju with the northwestern Chinese city of Shenyang next Wednesday.

Yonhap