Korean LCCs to join the Incheon-Ulaanbaatar route from summer www.m.mk.co.kr
Jeju Air and T’way Air have become South Korea’s first low-cost carriers to fly on Incheon-Ulaanbaatar route that has been dominated by the country’s full-service carriers Korean Air Lines and Asiana Airlines.
South Korea’s Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport on Thursday announced it has issued Jeju Air and T’way Air licenses to fly between capital regions of Korea and Mongolia starting this year during a meeting of its air transportation deliberation commission after two-year hiatus due to the pandemic.
With the new license, Jeju Air will off flights four times per week, while T’way Air flies three times per week from June through September.
This is the first time for budget airlines to operate flight in the lucrative route from Korea to Mongolia. With the addition of LCCs, the flight fare on the route with passenger occupancy rate of more than 80~90 percent during the peak season between June and September is expected to go down as the result of end to the monopoly by the country’s full-service carriers Korean Air and Asiana Airlines.
The latest decision is also expected to ease monopoly concern in the route ahead of a Korean Air-Asiana Airlines merger.
Korean Air and Asiana Airlines that currently operate the route six times a week and three times a week in the route, respectively, were also allowed to add one flight weekly. But their budget airline subsidiaries failed to obtain the license for the route.
The Korean transportation ministry has issued more international flight licenses amid normalization in traveling.
Local budget carrier Fly Gangwon was awarded with a license to operate a route between Yangyang, a coastal city in the east, and Chengdu, China’s southwestern city. The budget carrier will fly two times per week.
The ministry also issues eight new or extra flight operation licenses including ones that fly from Seoul to Germany and New Zealand.
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Published Date:2022-04-18