Jin Air seeks to spread wings to Indonesia, Singapore

Jin Air Co., a low-cost carrier (LCC) under Korean Air Co., is seeking to expand its air routes to Indonesia and Singapore this year with the addition of two Boeing 737 MAX passenger planes, its chief executive said on Wednesday.

Both routes have not been covered yet by domestic LCCs, except Jeju Air Co., which runs flights to and from Singapore.

Currently, their destinations in Southeast Asia are limited mostly to Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia and the Philippines.

“We are aiming to be Asia’s No. 1 low-cost carrier,” Jin Air CEO Park ByungRyool told The Korea Economic Daily.

“We will become the Asian Ryanair and Southwest Airlines, the largest low-cost carriers in Europe and the US (respectively),” he said in his first interview with a media outlet.

The former Korean Air managing vice president took over as Jin Air CEO in March of this year.

This year, it will increase its fleet of aircraft to 28 planes to launch flights to Singapore and Indonesia. But it will not expand into long-haul flights, said Park, also known as Yul Park.

Buoyed by their largest-ever results in the first quarter, South Korean budget carriers are striving to expand air routes.

The country's largest LCC Jeju Air is also preparing a route expansion in Southeast Asia, settings its sights on Indonesia. Air routes between South Korea and Indonesia will be assigned to carriers next month.

Jin Air, 55% owned by Korean Air, logged the largest operating profit margin of 24.2% among domestic airlines in the first quarter of this year.

The CEO credited the strong margins to its prompt response to the changes in demand and supply, based on its data-driven forecast three months in advance.

NEW MOMENTUM

Jin Air expects it will gain new growth momentum from July when it moves to Incheon International Airport Terminal 2, the same terminal as its parent Korean Air, away from the congested Terminal 1.

Sharing the terminal building with its parent company will be a big advantage. It will allow its passengers to change flights in a shorter period of time and transfer to a larger number of Korean Air routes, and vice versa.

Delta Airlines, a SkyTeam alliance partner of Korean Air, uses Terminal 2 as well, which will give Jin Air more room to serve transfer passengers.   

“We will increase our seat occupancy rate and improve profitability through code sharing with Korean Air,” Park said.

“Other LCCs will find it difficult to emulate our strategy.”

In 2023, Jin Air expects to cap four consecutive years of losses and swing to the black, driven by a post-pandemic recovery in travel demand.

During the pandemic period between 2020 and 2021, its revenue plummeted to one-fourth of the 2018 level of 1 trillion won ($760 million).

This year, its revenue is expected to exceed 1 trillion won, about twice its 2022 sales of 593 billion won, according to Park.

“LCCs are in high demand for both travel and business trips. We will enhance our presence as a premium LCC in every aspect from security to customer and other services.”

Write to Hyung-Kyu Kim and Mi-Sun Kang at khk@hankyung.com

Yeonhee Kim edited this article.