LCCs expanding their wings

The Ministry of Land, Transport and Maritime Affairs said that low-cost carriers opened regular charter services to Southeast Asian countries at the end of October 2010. Using the services, travelers will be able to travel abroad, spending less for air services.

Last July, traffic rights for international air services to four countries including the Philippines were allocated to Jeju Air, Jin Air, and Air Busan, with the LCCs deciding to launch operations as the air transport industry is growing again.

From the end of this month, the LCCs will open services as follows:

- Jeju Air
Incheon-Hong Kong 3 times/week (Oct. 27th)
Incheon-Manila 5 times/week (Nov. 24th)
Busan-Cebu 2 times/week (Nov. 25th)

- Jin Air
Incheon-Clark 5 times/week (Oct. 26th)
Incheon-Macau 5 times/week (Nov. 29th)

- Air Busan
Busan-Cebu 6 times/week (Dec. 23rd)


In addition, Jeju Air is planning to operate Chungju-Hong Kong 2 times/week, Jin Air Jeju-Shanghai 7 times/week, and Air Busan Busan-Hong Kong 4 times/week in the first half of 2011.

The expansion of services provided by LCCs will bring competition among large air carriers and LCCs, but it will give more choices to passengers flying to neighboring countries and eventually contribute to the development of air the transport industry.

Currently, Jeju Air is operating five routes including Incheon-Osaka (total 31 times/week), Jin Air two routes including Incheon-Bangkok (total 14 times/week), Air Busan two routes including Busan-Fukuoka (total 14 times/week), and Eastar Jet Incheon-Kota Kinabalu (total 4 times/week).

Up to September this year, the international passenger transport volume of Korean LCCs recorded 632,000, accounting for 3.18% of total international passenger transport volume of Korean air carriers. The percentage was quadrupled from 0.75% last year, and is expected to increase.