Jeju Air carried the most passengers among domestic low-cost carriers (LCCs) in May. Analysts said it was the result of capturing demand for short-haul trips during the Children's Day holiday and Buddha's Birthday holiday.
On the 15th, Jeju Air, citing the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport (MOLIT) aviation information portal system, said its number of passengers carried in May totaled 1,107,549. That was up 7.6% from the same period last year (1,029,004). Domestic routes rose 1.9% to 424,036, while international routes increased 11.5% to 683,513.
Jeju Air has surpassed 1 million monthly passengers for five consecutive months since January. It is the only domestic LCC to do so. As a result, the cumulative number of passengers from January to May reached 5,546,277, up 19.8% from 4,631,482 in the same period last year. It is also the highest among domestic LCCs.
The load factor also exceeded the industry average. Jeju Air's overall load factor in May was 88.2%, 2.4 percentage points higher than the average of 85.8% for the nine domestic LCCs. The load factor was 90.5% on domestic routes and 86.8% on international routes.
A Jeju Air official said, "During the golden holiday period, demand increased for short-haul destinations that can be visited at a reasonable expense, including Jeju, Tokyo in Japan, Taipei in Taiwan, and Weihai in China."
Jeju Air is responding flexibly to travel demand through efficient route operations. Since March, it has added four more round trips per day on the Gimpo–Jeju route, and since May it has begun trial operations twice a week on the Incheon–Jeju route. Also, the Incheon–Tokyo (Narita) and Fukuoka routes, as well as the Busan–Osaka route, which have been expanded since the same month, are set to see additional frequencies continue through July–August.
A Jeju Air official said, "We will continue to closely analyze customers' changing travel patterns and work to provide a more convenient and reasonable travel experience."