S.Korea's leading low-cost carrier Jeju Air posts record-high Q1 results

South Korea's leading low-cost carrier (LCC) Jeju Air Co. posted record-high performance in the first quarter.

Industry analysts say domestic LCCs will continue doing well with the lifting of most COVID-19 regulations opening the skies and soaring demand for short flights to overseas destinations like Japan and Southeast Asia.

Jeju Air on Tuesday reported provisional first-quarter sales of 423.3 billion won ($320 million) and operating profit of 70.7 billion won. Sales surged an incredible 421% year on year to break the company's all-time high. 

Operating profit also set a mark while finishing in the black for two consecutive quarters. The carrier thus maintained its winning ways since breaking a 15-quarter deficit streak in last year's fourth quarter.

"We operated just 37 planes in the first quarter, three fewer than 40 in the same quarter of 2019, but saw good performance thanks to the recovery of demand for travel to Japan and Southeast Asia," a company source said.

Jeju Air is not the only LCC showing good results in the first quarter. Jin Air that day announced sales of 352.5 billion won and operating profit of 84.9 billion won. Revenue saw an astounding 422% leap and operating profit returned to the black mostly thanks to new routes to Nha Trang, Vietnam, and Okinawa and Sapporo, Japan, to get a head start in grabbing the recovering travel market.

T'way Air Co. posted operating profit of 82.7 billion won in the first quarter, breaking a 16-quarter loss streak, while Air Busan recorded 213.1 billion won in sales and 47.8 billion won in operating profit. The latter saw its best quarterly sales in its history and its first surplus in operating profit in 16 quarters.

LCCs have seen massive recovery in performance thanks to surging demand for overseas travel. The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport said the number of international passengers on domestic airlines in the first quarter reached 9,877,577. Among them, 5.41 million rode LCCs, an amazing 104-fold jump from just 52,000 in the same quarter last year.

Analysts say travelers are mainly looking at going to Japan and Southeast Asia, two regions with many LCC routes, due to soaring inflation and the weak won.

Even in the travel offseason of the second quarter, the airline industry expects positive results thanks to the growing number of overseas travelers and resumption of routes to China.

Write to Mi-Sun Kang at misunny@hankyung.com