Jejuair carries 1.98 million passengers on Gimpo-Jeju route from January to August
Its 20.7% passenger share is the highest among carriers
Jejuair announced Wednesday that it recorded the highest market share on the Gimpo-Jeju route this year.
According to the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport's aviation information portal, the Gimpo-Jeju route carried about 9.58 million passengers from January through August this year. The route operated 52,078 flights during that period.
During the same period, Jejuair transported about 1.98 million passengers, giving it a 20.7 percent share, and operated 11,017 flights, a 21.2 percent share. That was the highest proportion among the nine domestic carriers flying the Gimpo-Jeju route. That means roughly one in five passengers on the route flew with Jejuair.
Jejuair has been actively using the Gimpo-Jeju route slots it received in January as part of corrective measures tied to a corporate merger. Since March 29, the airline has expanded its round trips on the route from 22 to as many as 26 a day. That added about 1,500 seats daily on average compared with before.
The added capacity paid off in passenger numbers as well. Jejuair topped the Gimpo-Jeju route's monthly passenger count for the first time in April and has held the top spot for five consecutive months through August.
Jejuair also kept its load factor high despite the supply expansion. From January through August, its load factor on the Gimpo-Jeju route stood at 93.7 percent, up about 2 percentage points from the same period last year.
Backed by stable transport performance and high load factors, Jejuair is the only domestic low-cost carrier to carry more than 1 million passengers a month for eight consecutive months. This streak has continued since January. In August alone, the airline carried more than 1.2 million passengers, its highest monthly tally this year. Its cumulative passenger count from January through August reached about 8.98 million.
"The Gimpo-Jeju route is our core route, carrying more customers than any other domestic route, so we are operating supply flexibly in response to shifts in demand," a Jejuair official said. "We will keep strengthening our competitiveness on the route through stable operations while improving convenience for Jeju residents and travelers alike."
Meanwhile, Jejuair announced Monday that it will resume flights on the Incheon-Guilin route later this month and launch charter flights on the Daegu-Guilin route. The Incheon-Guilin route will operate four times a week — on Wednesdays, Thursdays, Saturdays and Sundays — starting Sept. 23. The Daegu-Guilin route will run as a twice-weekly charter service, on Thursdays and Sundays, starting Sept. 24.
eyre@heraldcorp.com
