JEJU-DO < invest Korea

According to Yonhap News,

(SEOUL=Yonhap News) Jeju Air Co., South Korea's No. 1 budget carrier, said Tuesday that it expanded its market share in domestic flights that go through Jeju Island in the third quarter.

The company, owned by convenience product manufacturer and retailer Aekyung Industrial Co., said its passenger traffic share reached 16.5 percent in the three-month period, up 1.4 percentage points from the year before.

This placed it as the clear leader among the country's five low cost carriers (LCC), while helping the company reduce the gap with full service airlines such as Korea Air Lines Co. and Asiana Airlines Inc.

"Jeju Air ferried 934,000 people in the July-September period, up 23 percent from a year earlier," the company said in a press release. Korean Air, the country's largest flag carrier, handled 1.31 million people with Asiana trailing at 1.18 million.

Jeju Air said its growth reduced the gap with Korean Air to just 6.7 percentage points vis-a-vis 11.1 percent tallied for the third quarter of 2013. The gap with Asiana shrank to 4.4 percentage points from 5.6 percentage points.

The market shares of other LCCs on the Jeju Island route stood at 12 percent for Jin Air Co, the budget unit of Korean Air, 10.8 percent for T'way Airlines, 8.6 percent for Air Busan Co. and 8 percent for Eastar Jet Co.

Jeju Air with 16 jets in its fleet said its growth is based on its effort to steadily increase routes linking the resort island to other parts of South Korea. The company currently maintains flights linking Jeju to Seoul, Busan, Daegu and Cheongju.

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