Getting Bigger
Low-cost airlines occupied more than half of the share of domestic flights for the first time last year.
According to the statistics from the Korea Airports Corporation on Jan. 19, the number of total domestic flight passengers last year is 24.37 million (based on remaining passengers). Among them, 12.489 million, or 51.2 percent, were carried by the five low-cost airlines including Jeju Airlines, Air Busan, and Jin Air.
The transportation share rate of low-cost airlines has constantly risen. The share was 34.7 percent in 2010, 41.4 percent in 2011, 43.8 percent in 2012, 48.2 percent in 2013, and 51.2 percent last year.
The low-cost airlines have increased their transportation share ratio, as each airline has increased the number of existing flights. In particular, Jeju Airlines' new Daegu-to-Jeju route and T'way Airlines started operating Daegu-to-Jeju and Kwangju-to-Jeju routes.
The number of last year's domestic flight passengers carried by the five low-cost airlines increased by 16 percent (1.721 million) compared to the previous year.
Meanwhile, the number of domestic flight passengers of Korean Airlines was 6.663 million, down 297,000 from a year ago. The transportation share was 27.3 percent, down 3.2 percent from the previous year. For Asiana Airlines, domestic flight passengers were 5.218 million, an increase of 602,000, and the transportation share rate was 21.4 percent, up 0.8 percent.