Air Premia to introduce Incheon-Los Angeles service Oct. 29

Yoo Myeong-seop, CEO of Air Premia, speaks at a press conference on Thursday. [AIR PREMIA]

Air Premia will soon serve Los Angeles as it sets its sights on flying more long-haul routes.

The carrier announced Thursday it will offer Incheon-Los Angeles flights Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays starting Oct. 29.

It is first time since 1991 that a local carrier has introduced a Los Angeles services.

YP101 will leave Incheon at 1:35 p.m. and arrive Los Angeles at 8:20 a.m. YP102 will depart Los Angeles at 10:50 a.m. and arrive at Incheon 4:20 p.m. a day later.

Korean Air Lines and Asiana Airlines fly Incheon-Los Angeles, but the carriers are merging and only the surviving entity will retail the service, creating concerns about market dominance.

"Its a very competitive red ocean for short-range flights, but long-range routes are mostly operated only by Korean Air Lines and Asiana Airlines," said Yoo Myeong-seop, CEO of Air Premia, at a press conference Thursday. "Because the two carriers have to give up traffic rights in some routes they have dominance in for the merger to happen, there is growing opportunity for carriers like us to enter the market."

"Our aircraft can cover as far as Atlanta for the United States and Barcelona for Europe, which means we have coverage of all routes that Korean Air Lines and Asiana Airlines operate."

Los Angeles will be Air Premia's third international destination. It started offering Incheon-Singapore flights in July and will offer Incheon-Ho Chi Minh flights starting Oct. 6. It offered domestic flights until October last year, but stopped after announcing it will focus on international flights.

The company brands itself as Korea's first hybrid service carrier, flying to long-range destinations like full service carriers but offering tickets at the price range of low cost carriers.

Yoo vowed to achieve profitability through efficiency.

Air Premia only operates Boeing's 787-9 Dreamliners, which will allow it to save maintenance costs because it only operates one type of aircraft. The Dreamliners are big, long-range planes, which the carrier says will give the airline more space to transport cargo.

Air Premia expects to log annual revenue of 79 billion won ($56.6 million) this year, which would be up 3,090 percent compared to 2021. It expects its operating loss to be 34 billion won this year, compared to a loss of 38.4 billion won in 2021.

Net loss was 51.9 billion won last year, compared to a 12.1-billion-won net loss in 2020. Air Premia didn't give a net loss estimate for 2022.

Although the company is suffering losses, its goal is to report its first operating profit in 2024. Its mid-term goal is to log revenue of 860 billion won and an operating profit of 90 billion won in 2026.

To do so, the carrier will add more long-range routes.

It will offer flights to two new U.S. cities and two European countries next year. It currently only has one Dreamliner, but will have three by end of September and 10 by 2025.

"We currently have traffic rights to fly to Germany and countries such as France and Italy are designated as countries that Korean Air Lines and Asiana Airlines will have dominance in when they merge," said CEO Yoo. "We will focus on offering flights to and from Western European countries, especially Germany and France."

BY LEE TAE-HEE [lee.taehee2@joongang.co.kr]