News
Busan Airport ending underdog status
March 1st 2019
Southeast Asia expansion is significant but airport will have harder time arguing for long-haul flights. Read More »
An expanded network to Southeast Asia is helping Busan attain rightful traffic commensurate with its position as South Korea’s second-largest airport.
With rapid growth in Northeast Asia and quickly shifting hub traffic, South Korea has prioritised international growth at Seoul Incheon to boost aviation in the country rather than fragment demand across Seoul and Busan. This strategy has its detractors since it is impractical for Busan’s short-haul traffic to hub over Seoul.
Perceived as a blue-chip development, Busan will go from having no Singapore flights to 18 a week: a daily service each from Eastar Jet and Jeju Air and four flights a week from SilkAir. Singapore appears to be under-utilising its allocation, possibly due to slot congestion at Busan.
The market is largely outbound Korean leisure demand, giving the South Korean LCCs a point-of-sale and seat density advantage in addition to a lower cost base. While Eastar has longer range 737-900s and 737 MAX 8s, Jeju only has 737-800s and will take a payload penalty. Jeju is expected to offer business class seats.
Air Busan has been awarded rights for Busan-Manila. Air Busan and Eastar operated charters to Singapore to demonstrate to their government a commitment to serving Singapore. Air Busan’s A321 flight was heavily seat blocked.
Air Busan was unsuccessful in the Singapore traffic right allocation. Air Busan’s growth is partially aligned to Busan airport. Air Busan has local Busan shareholders and a minority investment from Asiana. Air Busan and Asiana have gone through different relationships. Currently, there is tension between the two carriers.
Busan is expected to push for more short-haul international flights. It also wants a non-stop long-haul flight but Seoul has been blocking the development. Finnair is interested in a non-stop Busan-Helsinki service.
