This photo taken June 14, 2023, and provided by Air Premia shows the budget carrier’s CEO Yoo Myung-sub speaking about its business plans for the year of 2027 during a press conference at Glad Hotel in Yeouido, Seoul.
SEOUL, June 14 (Korea Bizwire) — Air Premia Inc. said Wednesday it aims to achieve 1.15 trillion won (US$899 million) in sales in 2027 by expanding its fleet and long-haul routes.
In July last year, the South Korean low-cost carrier began its services by offering flights on the Incheon-Singapore route with one B787-9 passenger jet. But the carrier suspended the Singapore route in March.
The budget carrier currently operates five chartered B787-9s to serve two long-haul routes from Incheon to Los Angeles and New York and three mid-haul routes from Incheon to Bangkok, Ho Chi Minh City and Tokyo.
“We are planning to open the (third long-distance) Incheon-Frankfurt route this month and to add four additional B787-9s next year,” Air Premia CEO Yoo Myung-sub said in a news conference at a Seoul hotel.
Air Premia is considering opening more long-haul routes to Paris, Rome, Barcelona, Seattle and Hawaii in the coming years, said Yoo, who formerly served as a marketing executive at the national flag carrier Korean Air Co.
To serve those routes, the company plans to increase the number of chartered B787-9s to 15 by 2027 and more than 20 by 2030.
This file photo provided by Air Premia shows its B787-9 passenger jet.
Air Premia said it expected to report 354 billion won in sales in 2023, sharply up from 53 billion won a year earlier.
The company has said beefing up the fleet with the B787-9 only will help it maintain high efficiency in terms of fuel costs and safety.
The company provides the economy class only on its planes at “reasonable” prices to win price-sensitive customers away from full-service carriers (FSCs), such as Korean Air Co. and Asiana Airlines Inc.
Long-range routes have long been dominated by the two FSCs. Local budget carriers have mainly served short and mid-haul routes to China, Japan and Southeast Asia in the past few decades.
South Korea has two FSCs and 10 LCCs, including Jeju Air Co., Jin Air Co., Air Busan Co., Air Seoul Inc., Eastar Jet, T’way Air, Fly Gangwon, Aero K Airlines Co. and Air Incheon Co.
Air Incheon is a cargo-focused carrier, and the nine others are passenger ones.
(Yonhap)
