Flying High Overseas

Low-cost carriers (LCCs) accounted for 18.14% of international flights in South Korea in the first quarter of this year, up a 3.54 percentage points from a year ago.
Low-cost carriers (LCCs) accounted for 18.14% of international flights in South Korea in the first quarter of this year, up a 3.54 percentage points from a year ago.

 

It has been found that low-cost carriers (LCCs) accounted for 18.14% of international flights in South Korea in the first quarter of this year. Specifically, a total of approximately 17.7 million passengers used international flights and LCCs covered about 3.21 million of them during the period.

The ratio is 3.54 percentage points higher than that of last year. In addition, it is about eight times the ratio recorded in 2010, when LCCs took off in earnest in the South Korean aviation industry.

On the contrary, the share of major airlines such as Korean Air and Asiana Airlines fell from 49.54% to 47.12% between last year and the first quarter of 2016.

An interesting point is that the share of foreign airlines, which are available at relatively lower prices than the major South Korean airlines, showed a continuous decline as well. Their passenger transport share fell from 37.33% to 35.86% between 2014 and 2015 and then to 34.74% this year in the presence of LCCs, which increased their domestic flight share in the South Korean market from 55.2% to 57.4% between the end of last year and March this year. 

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