[Asia Economy Yeongnam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Hwang Du-yeol] Air Busan is deploying temporary flights on the Jeju route, where travel demand is surging, throughout August to alleviate the severe seat shortage.
Air Busan will increase 174 flights on the Busan-Jeju and Gimpo-Jeju routes during August, adding 32,150 seats.
With the additional flights, Air Busan will operate a total of 1,336 flights on the Busan-Jeju and Gimpo-Jeju routes throughout August.
According to Air Busan, as of the first half of this year, a total of approximately 1.55 million passengers traveled to and from Jeju Island using Air Busan.
The Gimpo-Jeju route recorded an average load factor of 93% with 689,185 passengers, while the Busan-Jeju route had 732,479 passengers with a load factor of 85.1%.
In particular, the Busan-Jeju route saw over 124,000 passengers in July alone, surpassing the 95,000 passengers in 2020 and 105,000 passengers in 2021.
Air Busan decided to increase flights, anticipating a significant rise in Jeju travelers during the peak season of July and August following the lifting of social distancing measures in April this year.
The temporary increase in flights is expected to ease the seat shortage for Jeju travelers in August and also boost sales.
In fact, nearly 7 million travelers visited Jeju Island in the first half of this year, showing a strong preference for Jeju travel.
An Air Busan official said, “We planned this increase to partially alleviate the chronic seat shortage that Jeju travelers experience every vacation season. We recommend Air Busan to those planning to travel to Jeju in August.”
Currently, Air Busan operates ▲12 round trips daily on the Busan-Jeju route ▲10 round trips daily on the Gimpo-Jeju route ▲3 round trips daily on the Ulsan-Jeju route.
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