Jeju Air has surpassed 1 million monthly passengers through April this year, continuing to lead the low-cost carrier (LCC) industry.
According to the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport's Aviation Information Portal System on the 26th, Jeju Air carried 1,127,370 passengers last month, up 20.3% from 936,899 in the same period last year. Domestic passengers rose 11.7% from 387,429 to 432,582, and international passengers increased 26.4% from 549,470 to 694,788.
This year, Jeju Air's monthly passengers were found at 1,176,532 in January, 1,067,659 in February, and 1,067,167 in March. It was the only domestic LCC to record more than 1 million passengers every month.
Last month, Jeju Air accounted for 23.8% of all passengers carried by the nine domestic LCCs. The shares were 25.3% for domestic routes and 23.1% for international routes, respectively.
Jeju Air's overall load factor last month was 91.9%, 2.4 percentage points (P) above the LCC average load factor of 89.5%. The load factor was 97% on domestic routes and 89.1% on international routes.
Jeju Air increased its Incheon-Osaka route from four to seven daily flights starting Oct. 26, when last year's winter schedule began. In January this year, it fully utilized its Gimpo-Jeju slots and has been operating four additional round trips per day on the Gimpo-Jeju route since Mar. 29.
Starting on the 12th of this month, it began trial operations twice a week on the Incheon-Jeju route. It is also adding flights on the Incheon-Tokyo, Nagoya, and Fukuoka routes while launching a new Incheon-Kobe route, expanding investment in Japan routes.
A Jeju Air official said, "Although we are facing difficulties due to increased volatility in oil prices and exchange rates, we are operating routes flexibly to respond to changes in travel demand."