Jeju Air adds new flights and ups popular routes

Jeju Air is moving aggressively to expand its presence in the domestic aviation industry. Korea’s largest low-cost carrier (LCC) announced on Wednesday that it will launch four new flights to Asian cities by the end of April.

The airline, an affiliate of Aekyung Group, said it will introduce flights connecting Daegu and Beijing on Feb. 13, the first time the Korean LCC has expanded a route to the Chinese capital.

The flight will be available three times a week.

Jeju Air also said that it will operate flights to Osaka and Fukuoka in Japan as well as Taipei, which will depart from Busan starting in April.

It will additionally resume three Chinese routes that were previously suspended due to construction at local airports or lack of demand.

To accommodate the increasing number of Chinese tourists, flights from Incheon to Weihai, Incheon to Shijiazhuang and Busan to Shijiazhuang will begin operating in March.

Jeju Air added that it will also increase its popular flights in March. The flight from Busan to Guam will be doubled from two to four times a week. Flights between Incheon and Saipan will double as well from daily flights to 14 times a week, while flights from Incheon to Jiamusi, China, will operate twice a week.

After the expansion, the LCC will have 25 international routes going to seven countries. Including domestic services, it will operate flights over 29 routes, with its recent expansion plan focused around airports in Busan and Daegu.

“For customers who live in the Gyeongsang area, it is inconvenient to go to Incheon International Airport to take international flights, and demand to visit these cities [overseas] is also increasing,” said a spokesman from Jeju Air. “Celebrating our 10th anniversary and positioning the company as one of the big three airlines in Korea, we will diversify our routes and make the Gyeongsang area our second hub.”

According to data from the Korea Airports Corporation, 2.4 million people departed from Busan’s Gimhae International Airport on international flights in 2014, up 9.1 percent from a year earlier, while 112,206 people took international flights from Daegu, a 57.8 percent year-on-year increase.

BY JOO KYUNG-DON [kjoo@joongang.co.kr]