Air passenger traffic up 12% in Feb on budget carriers

Published : Mar 28, 2017 - 13:42 Updated : Mar 28, 2017 - 13:42

South Korea's air passenger traffic rose 8.7 percent last month from a year earlier, as customers traveled more on low-cost carriers, the transportation ministry said Tuesday.

The number of passengers who booked air tickets on domestic and international routes jumped to 8.84 million in February from 8.13 million a year earlier, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport said in a statement.

(Yonhap)

"It was mainly due to an increase in flights offered by budget airlines," a ministry official said.

In February, budget carriers such as Jin Air and Air Busan served 1.61 million passengers, up nearly 50 percent from 1.07 million served a year earlier, the statement said.

The numbers effectively mean one out of every five South Koreans used a budget carrier to travel last month.

The passenger traffic on international routes climbed 11.6 percent to 6.53 million in February from 5.85 million a year earlier. During the same period, passengers on domestic routes came to 2.31 million, up 1.1 percent from 2.28 million, it said. (Yonhap)