Jin Air, the budget carrier of Korean Airlines, is expected to make its inaugural flight from Seoul to Guam as early as next month. Airport officials said the first flight will arrive on island on April 20.
According to the Korea Airports Corp., low-cost carriers grabbed a 46.9 percent share of passengers in the country’s domestic market in the first two months this year.
The agency estimates that the budget carrier’s market share will reach 50 percent by the end of this year. The growth represents a drastic jump from the airline’s previous market share of 16.8 percent in 2008.
Korea Airports Corp. officials said that the low-cost carriers will try to take a bigger slice of the international pie as well with new flights abroad.
While the budget airline had previously wanted to begin daily flights between Seoul and Guam on April 2, Jin Air did not receive approval from the U.S. Department of Transportation in time.
According to airport projections, the airline’s presence on Guam will bring in thousands of additional tourists to the island each year. An estimated 53,000 Korean tourists will travel to Guam each year if the airline maintains an 80 percent passenger load capacity on each flight.
The B 737-800 series planes Jin Air will use for the direct flights have a total of 183 seats, according to Guam International Airport Authority spokesperson Rolenda Faasumalie.
While the low-cost carrier is marketed towards Korean travelers, Faasumalie previously told Variety that the budget airlines
will lure local residents as well.
According to the Korea Airports Corp., travelers are now looking at ways to cut their travel costs as a result of the global
economic crisis.
Travelers are drawn to low-cost carriers like Jin Air because in most cases fares are nearly 20 percent less than normal fares offered by bigger airlines like Korean Airlines and Asiana Airlines.
Budget carriers are able to keep their costs down by eliminating services that customers often pay extra for on major airlines.
Faasumalie also added that travelers will be drawn to the new airlines because of the reasonable flight departure and arrival times.
Korean Airlines arrives on Guam in the wee hours of the morning, she said. However, Jin Air flights will arrive on island in the afternoon.
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