By Kim Jae-heun
Low-cost carriers (LCC) are seeking to open new flight routes departing from regional airports in a bid to continue their “unprecedented huge” success from last year.
According to the aviation industry, Monday, Jeju Air plans to launch routes connecting Cheongju in North Chungcheong Province to Osaka in Japan on July 21, and Muan in South Jeolla Province to Taipei, Taiwan, on July 27.
The nation's largest budget airline has already been operating routes from Muan to Vietnam's Danang and Thailand's Bangkok since May.
Jin Air, the runner-up of the industry, has nine international flights departing from Busan and one from Jeju Island. It is also set to increase Busan flights with Guam and Okinawa later this month to strengthen its strategy focused on regional airports.
T'way Air has been operating 13 international flights flying from Daegu to various cities such as Guam, Taipei, Tokyo, Osaka, Fukuoka and Hong Kong.
Eastar Jet will reopen its Chinese routes from regional airports. Previously, the airline had China-bound flights including Shenyang, Pudong, Harbin and Ningbo.
In the wake of a diplomatic feud with China due to Korea's decision to deploy a U.S. missile shield here, Eastar had to suspend all its routes to China except Dalian.
Last year, LCC companies refocused their international routes from China to Southeast Asian countries.
According to the tourism research center at Sejong University last year, LCCs have long since taken over the domestic travel market.
Not only are they operating over half of the flights within the country, but they are also close to occupying near 30 percent of international travels.
According to a recent report by the transport ministry, the number of travelers opting for LCCs for their overseas trips increased by 41.9 percent last year. The number of those who chose full-service carriers decreased by 1.9 percent.
“There are no more slots for international routes available for LCC players at Incheon, Gimpo and Gimhae airports. To maximize the operation of their planes and win new customers, LCCs are strengthening their policy to launch and add international routes departing from regional airports,” an official of the aviation sector said.