The budget carrier, an affiliate of Aekyung Group, said it plans to launch new routes to two more Chinese cities in April. It will begin two weekly flights connecting Jeju Island to Wenzhou in southeastern Zhejiang Province on April 6, and Incheon to Quanzhou in southern Fujian Province on April 8.
As a result, Jeju Air will operate 20 flights per week on eight routes to and from Chinese destinations, including one flight per day to and from Qingdao in eastern Shandong Province.
The carrier said it is considering launching new routes to and from three or four Chinese cities in the first half of this year.
Chinese tourists visiting Jeju Island have increased sharply as they can enter the southern island province of Jeju without visa, the Korea Tourism Organization (KTO) said.
According to the KTO, the number of Chinese who visited Jeju Island in the first two months of this year reached 128,800, up 69 percent from the same period of last year. The figure accounted for 28.8 percent of 446,000 Chinese tourists who visited Korea during the January-February period.
By Ayaka Erin Tobari
reporter
Park Sae-jin
swatchsjp@ajunews.com