Eastar Jet adds flights to Japan, Taiwan and Jeju for summer, Chuseok peak season

Eastar Jet said Monday it will add flights on routes to Japan, Taiwan and Jeju to meet rising travel demand during the peak summer and Chuseok season.

The low-cost carrier will add 144 flights on the Incheon-Tokyo route, 144 on Incheon-Fukuoka, 58 on Busan-Fukuoka and 56 on Busan-Taipei between August and October.

With the expansion, the Incheon-Tokyo route will operate four to five round trips daily from Aug. 14 to Oct. 24, while the Incheon-Fukuoka route will run four round trips daily over the same period. The Busan-Fukuoka and Busan-Taipei routes will each operate two to three round trips daily from Aug. 29 to Oct. 24.

Eastar Jet will also add 32 flights on the Gimpo-Jeju route from Sept. 19 to Oct. 11, a period concentrated with public holidays, bringing the daily average on that route to as many as 21 round trips. Across the five routes, the additions total 434 flights and approximately 82,000 additional seats.

The summer vacation period and Chuseok are the peak travel seasons in the second half of the year, and low-cost carriers are rolling out promotions and adding capacity to capture the demand.

"We added flights primarily on short-haul routes to Jeju, Japan and Taiwan to respond to the increase in peak-season demand," an Eastar Jet official said. "We plan to continue flexibly expanding supply in line with customers' travel needs going forward."

Meanwhile, Eastar Jet launched a discounted airfare promotion called Super Star Festa starting Monday.

Super Star Festa is a large-scale sale event Eastar Jet holds regularly in the first and third quarters each year. The current event covers all Eastar Jet routes, with discounts of up to 99 percent off the base fare. The lowest all-in one-way fares, including airport taxes and fuel surcharges, start at 28,900 won ($19) for Jeju, 66,300 won for Japan, 70,900 won for Greater China and 111,900 won for Southeast Asia.