41% Return Rate of Holiday Train Tickets Over 5 Years
More Than Half of SR Returned Tickets Operated as Empty Seats
Every year, train tickets sell out due to holiday travel, but it has been revealed that the number of seats left empty due to so-called 'no-shows'?passengers who purchase tickets but do not use them and then return them?reaches 200,000.
On the 7th, the office of Yoon Jong-gun, a member of the National Assembly Land, Infrastructure and Transport Committee from the Democratic Party of Korea, announced that this figure was compiled after analyzing the ticket return data from Korail and SR over the past five years.
During the holiday period, the ticket return rate for Korail trains was 1,350,570 tickets, which corresponds to 41% of the average annual sales of 3,316,619 tickets. During the same period, SR had 87,040 tickets returned, accounting for 15% of the average sales of 557,685 tickets. Furthermore, more than half of the returned tickets, 42,483 tickets (51%), resulted in empty seats that were operated without passengers.
Travelers including those returning home for the Lunar New Year holiday are boarding KTX trains at Seoul Station. Photo by Hyunmin Kim kimhyun81@
During last Lunar New Year, about 4.08 million Korail train tickets were sold, of which 46% were refunded, and approximately 195,000 tickets (4%) were operated as empty seats without being occupied. SR showed a similar situation, with 14% of about 690,000 sold tickets returned, and about 54,000 tickets (7.8%) not resold.
Typically, returned tickets are resold up until just before the train departs. However, after the train departs, tickets cannot be resold and remain as empty seats, which ultimately causes losses for both the train operators and the public. Korail and SR have taken measures to address this issue. Korail is currently running a KTX special promotion during the Chuseok holiday to encourage the resale of canceled tickets by offering discounted KTX fares.
Through this promotion, empty seats can be purchased at a 30% discount, and additional discounts are available for families traveling together. SR will sell tickets starting from the 9th with discounts of up to 40% compared to the existing SRT fares.
SR has also taken action against unfair ticket transactions. From the 26th to the 29th of last month, during the holiday ticket reservation period, SR registered IPs suspected of using macro programs in their intrusion prevention system and blocked them. Additionally, SR collaborated with online secondhand trading platforms Danggeun, Bungaejangter, and Junggonara to promote and enforce the eradication of unfair ticket trading.
Assemblyman Yoon stated, "Refunding tickets just before the train departs or after the train has started operating effectively causes the tickets to become void," and suggested, "To reduce the damage caused by no-shows, cancellation fees should be increased and resale rates improved, especially during holiday periods."
© The Asia Business Daily(www.asiae.co.kr). All rights reserved.
