Jeju Air resumes flights to Saipan amid vaccination drive

Jeju Air Co., South Korea's biggest budget carrier by sales, said Tuesday it has resumed flights to Saipan in a preemptive measure to absorb post-coronavirus travel demand.

Jeju Air started to provide one flight a week on the Incheon-Saipan route on the day following permission from the transport ministry, a company spokesman said over the phone.

"We expect most of the initial passengers to be businessmen, Koreans residing overseas and their family members. But pent-up demand for travel (to the US territories) is expected to rise depending on the pace of COVID-19 vaccinations," he said.

Guam and Saipan currently allow exemptions from a two-week quarantine for incoming passengers who received Pfizer, Moderna and Janssen vaccines.

AstraZeneca vaccine recipients and unvaccinated people are required to take a coronavirus test at the territories' airports and undergo a two-week quarantine at local facilities.

In South Korea, passengers from Saipan are required to undergo a mandatory two-week quarantine in their homes or other places.

The Saipan route has been suspended for more than a year due to the COVID-19 pandemic, along with most of the international routes operated by local airlines.

Jeju Air has suspended most of its flights on international routes since early last year due to countries' entry restrictions.

International flights to five cities -- Tokyo, Osaka, Weihai, Harbin and Manila -- are available for business travel and Koreans residing in the cities. (Yonhap)