[Courtesy of Jin Air]
Jin Air, a budget carrier run by Korean Air Lines, launched a new flight service to Japan's main gateway in Narita Friday amid tougher competition in the international air passenger market, especially in Asia.
The carrier used its 189-seat B737-800 jet for the maiden flight from Incheon to Narita. It will offer daily morning and afternoon flights.
Jin Air, one of South Korea's five low-cost carriers (LCCs), will launch a temporary flight service to Cairns on the northeast coast of Australia, sending its B777-200ER plane twice a week for two months from December 14.
Competition has intensified in the LCC market as two premium carriers, Asiana, and Korean Air, stepped up operations of their budget airline units. Asiana's new LCC, Air Seoul, waits for government approval to launch services to Okinawa, Qingdao and 14 other destinations in five countries.
LCCs are now eager to increase international flight routes or raise more money for business expansion as South Korea's air passenger traffic continued to rise partly thanks to competition.
Government data showed South Korea's total air passenger traffic rose 9.8 percent year-on-year to 89.4 million in 2015, helped by a rapid rise in the number of passengers using LCCs. The transport ministry predicted LCCs are expected to carry more than 30 million passengers this year, compared to 24.2 million last year.
The market share of LCCs also increased from 11.5 percent in 2014 to 14.6 percent last year on international routes, while they carried 54.7 percent of total passengers on domestic routes last year, up from 50.7 percent a year earlier.
Aju News Lim Chang-won = cwlim34@ajunews.com
reporter
Park Sae-jin
swatchsjp@ajunews.com