Parata Airlines CEO Cheol-min Yoon unveiled a plan to aggressively target transfer demand by launching service to Los Angeles (LA). Parata Airlines is preparing to operate the Incheon-LA route in April next year. Along with this, it plans to continue launching flights to major cities in Southeast Asia and China, aiming to make transfer demand from these regions to the Americas a growth driver.
After the launch ceremony for the Hanoi route held at Incheon International Airport Terminal 1 on the 13th, CEO Yoon met with reporters and said, "We will create a route from Hanoi to the United States via Incheon." Yoon said, "Hanoi is a city with transfer demand (to go to the Americas), and the Americas routes have strong business demand. What matters to them is the convenience of the routes."
Yoon explained that Parata Airlines' launch of routes such as Cheongju and Shenzhen in China, obtained under the route allocation by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, is in the same vein. Yoon said, "These cities also have high transfer demand for going to the United States," and explained that the airline will operate routes to make transfers easy so it can attract that demand. Yoon also said, "We will stabilize the Americas routes and, in the long term, plan to launch European routes."
Parata Airlines, formerly Fly Gangwon, has been expanding rapidly since being acquired by WINIX and resuming commercial operations in the fourth quarter of last year. By first launching routes with tourism demand such as Narita, Osaka, Da Nang, Nha Trang, and Phu Quoc, it recorded the highest international flight load factor among Korean carriers from March to May this year.
With the launch of the Hanoi route, CEO Yoon plans to diversify the pipeline from a focus on short-haul tourist destinations to targeting business and transfer demand. Business routes do not see demand surge as much as tourist routes, but they have the advantage of generating revenue based on steady demand.
This appears to be influenced by Parata Airlines' management situation, which is currently in the red. In the first quarter of this year, Parata Airlines posted 34.4 billion won in sales but recorded a net loss of 32.6 billion won. Last year, sales were 15.2 billion won, with an operating loss of 59.3 billion won and a net loss of 71.1 billion won.
In particular, in the second quarter of this year, the management environment for the aviation industry deteriorated due to high oil prices and exchange rates stemming from the war between the United States-Israel and Iran. Because of this, CEO Yoon returned his entire salary last month. Executives returned 30% of their pay, and employees shifted to a four-day workweek.
Yoon said, "It has been the toughest situation since right after the war, but oil prices are currently falling, so we have a positive outlook (for the future)," adding, "We should be able to normalize (the emergency management) in a short time."