Increasing Share
Domestic low-cost carriers (LCCs) surpassed the 30-percent mark of international passenger transport share on an annual basis last year for the first time.
According to statistics of the Korea Airports Corporation (KAC) and the Incheon International Airport Corporation (IIAC) on January 30, the number of international air passengers in eight domestic airliners in 2016 stood at 47.21 million. Out of 47.21 million, the number of international air passengers in LCCs reached 14.3 million, accounting for 30.3 percent.
It is the first time for LCCs to achieve more than 30 percent in the annual number of international air passengers. LCCs transported 8.97 million passengers in 2015, recording a 22.7 percent, and the figure increased 7.6 percent point in a year.
The number of international flight passengers and transport share of LCCs have shown an average annual growth rate of 41.2 percent over the last five years. In particular, the figure last year increased a whopping 59.5 percent from a year earlier and it suggested that LCCs moved its operation focus from domestic flights to international flights.
By airline, Jeju Air had the largest number of international air passengers at 4.12 million last year, followed by Jin Air at 3.75 million, Air Busan at 2.22 million, EastarJet at 2.07 million, T'way Air at 2.02 million and Air Seoul a 117,000.
The total number of domestic flight passengers last year was 30.72 million, up 9.8 percent from a year ago, or 2.74 million. The number of passengers transported by LCCs reached 17.63 million, accounting for 57.4 percent of the total passengers.