Jeju Air carries 1.1M passengers in May, tops LCC rankings for 5th straight month

Jeju Air carried more passengers than any other domestic low-cost carrier in May, extending its lead at the top of the LCC rankings.

According to the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport's aviation information portal system Monday, Jeju Air transported 1,107,549 passengers in May, up 7.6 percent from 1,029,004 in the same month last year. Domestic passengers rose 1.9 percent, from 415,966 to 424,036, while international passengers climbed 11.5 percent, from 613,038 to 683,513.

The carrier has now surpassed 1 million monthly passengers for five consecutive months — the only domestic LCC to do so — after recording 1,176,532 in January, 1,067,659 in February, 1,067,167 in March and 1,127,370 in April.

Cumulative passengers from January through May reached 5,546,277, a 19.8 percent increase from 4,631,482 in the same period last year, the highest figure among domestic low-cost carriers.

Load factors also exceeded the industry average. Jeju Air's overall load factor for May was 88.2 percent, 2.4 percentage points above the 85.8 percent average for the nine domestic LCCs. The domestic load factor stood at 90.5 percent and the international load factor at 86.8 percent. Jeju Air also accounted for 23.3 percent of total LCC passengers in May.

"Jeju Air has maintained monthly passenger numbers above 1 million for five consecutive months through efficient route operations based on customer demand and stable capacity expansion," a company official said. "We will continue to closely analyze our customers' evolving travel patterns and work to provide more convenient and affordable travel experiences."

Meanwhile, Jeju Air has been operating four additional daily round trips on the Gimpo–Jeju route since March 29, making full use of slots allocated to the carrier as part of remedial measures following a business combination approval earlier this year.

Starting May 12, the airline also launched twice-weekly trial flights on the Incheon–Jeju route to improve access for foreign visitors arriving through Incheon International Airport and for Jeju Island residents traveling abroad. Jeju Air also plans to continue expanding its Incheon–Tokyo (Narita), Incheon–Fukuoka and Busan–Osaka routes, which have been operating with increased frequencies since May, through July and August.