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Jeju Air to cut flights by up to 15% in wake of crash

Published: 31 Dec. 2024, 19:07 Updated: 01 Jan. 2025, 17:40

CHO YONG-JUN
[email protected]

Jeju Air CEO Kim E-bae on Dec. 31 at the Incheon International Airport [JOINT PRESS CORPS]

Jeju Air will reduce its flight numbers by 10 to 15 percent until March 2025 after the budget carrier came under scrutiny for higher operational hours per plane in the wake of a fatal crash in Muan, South Jeolla.

Following the Jeju Air disaster that took the lives of 179 passengers and crew on board on Sunday, the airline held its fourth media briefing on Tuesday.

“To the extent that we can minimize the inconvenience caused to the passengers, we will be reducing [Jeju Air’s] winter air traffic by 10 to 15 percent,” Kim E-bae, CEO of Jeju Air, said during the briefing. “The decision was made as a means to resolve the internal concern of reducing employees' burden and to secure resources for maintenance.”

The CEO said the airline is currently in the process of choosing the flights they plan on reducing, which would be selected based on whether the route and time can be replaced by Jeju Air and other airlines’ routes.

The airline had the highest average flight hours per passenger aircraft amongst all Korean airlines at 418 hours per month as of the third quarter of 2024, and it is also the airline with the most aged aircraft at 14.4 years, according to data from an electronic disclosure.

Korean Air and Asiana Airlines recorded an average of 355 operating hours per passenger aircraft and 335 hours, respectively, while T'way Air recorded 386 hours per passenger aircraft.

"We are not reducing it because we have been operating on an overly [tight] schedule,” he said. The CEO also added that the number of engineers assigned per plane in 2024 increased over the number in 2019.

The Jeju Air CEO also said it would be correct to call the incident a “Jeju Air tragedy.” There have been disputes about whether the incident should refer to the name of the airport, Muan, where the accident happened instead of naming it after the airline.

BY CHO YONG-JUN [[email protected]]