Jeju Air becomes 1st S.Korean LCC to surpass 100 mn passenger mark

South Korea's low-cost carrier (LCC) Jeju Air Co. on Sunday said its cumulative number of passengers exceeded 100 million 17 years after the company's launch in June 2006 in a first for a domestic LCC.

The passenger milestone broke down to 59.7 million domestic passengers or 59.7%, and 40.3 million travelers from abroad (40.3%). By route, 11.9 million (11.9%) flew to Southeast Asian countries like Thailand, the Philippines, and Vietnam, 7.2 million (7.2%) to China, Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan, and 4.5 million (4.5%) to Oceania including Guam and Saipan.

Jeju Air's cumulative passenger figure went from 10 million in 2012 to 70 million in 2019, recording high average growth of 27.6% per year, but a boycott of Japanese products and the COVID-19 pandemic slammed the brakes on the sales increase. In the first half of this year, however, the LCC led all domestic counterparts offering international flights with 4.2 million passengers, 60 times higher than 70,000 in the same half last year.

"With the reopening of overseas tourism, we achieved the cumulative mark of 100 million passengers by flexibly operating routes to Japan and Southeast Asia," a Jeju Air source said.

Write to Jae-Fu Kim at hu@hankyung.com