By Lee Hyo-sik
Jeju Air, Korea’s largest low-cost air carrier drew an enthusiastic response from travelers with its latest promotional event that offered travelers a flight to Jeju Island from Seoul and other cities for only 10,000 won ($8.9).
Thousands of Koreans seeking to purchase the highly-discounted one-way ticket to the nation’s most popular resort island flocked to the airline’s website (www.jejuair.net) from 9 a.m. Wednesday to secure seats before they were sold out. At one point the site was inaccessible as so many people were trying to log on simultaneously.
To celebrate the sixth anniversary since the launch of its operations in 2006, the budget carrier offered a total of 3,600 seats on three domestic routes — Gimpo-Jeju, Chungju-Jeju and Busan-Jeju — from Jan. 25 to 30 at 10,000 won.
Within hours, all the tickets were sold out. Jeju Air then decided to offer more discounted tickets through midnight in a bid to meet greater-than-expected consumer demand. The company said a total of 5,272 were sold on Wednesday. Buyers were only able to purchase the tickets at the airline’s website and once purchased, tickets are not refundable. Including airport user fees and fuel surcharges, the final ticket price totaled 22,800 won.
“We appreciate the fervent feedback from our customers. Besides the planned 3,600 seats, we decided to offer more one-way tickets at 10,000 won not to disappoint those who couldn’t get tickets to go to Jeju Island at such a low cost. We will make every effort to keep the ticket prices low and improve customer service in the future,” a Jeju Air spokeswoman said.
She said the news of Jeju’s offering of discounted tickets spread in cyberspace like wildfire Wednesday and was one of the most searched words online.
“Larger than usual online traffic to our website was recorded Wednesday. Normally, between 25,000 and 30,000 clicks are recorded a day. But on Wednesday, our site had more than 120,000,” the spokeswoman said.
The airline currently operates three domestic routes connecting Seoul and two other cities on the mainland with Jeju Island. It also operates flights between Incheon and other local airports, and destinations in Japan and Southeast Asia.
The company posted 158 billion won in sales in 2010, up 80 percent from a year earlier, with its operating loss shrinking to 5 billion won. The discount carrier said it is targeting sales of 211 billion won this year, up 34 percent from last year, and an operating profit of 7.5 billion won.