{"id":180813,"date":"2014-10-02T04:00:21","date_gmt":"2014-10-01T18:00:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=180813"},"modified":"2014-10-02T04:00:21","modified_gmt":"2014-10-01T18:00:21","slug":"jeju-air-opens-route-saipan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/jeju-air-opens-route-saipan\/","title":{"rendered":"Jeju Air opens route to Saipan"},"content":{"rendered":"

Jeju Air has landed.<\/p>\n

With a fully booked flight arriving yesterday afternoon at the Saipan International Airport, Jeju Air officially began flights between Saipan and Incheon, South Korea.<\/p>\n

Jeju Air CEO Kyu Nam Choi, who joined the men, women and children streaming through the gates of the airport, said in an interview that the airline is very excited to begin its route to Saipan.<\/p>\n

\"Jeju
Jeju Air passengers arriving at the Saipan International Airport are presented with shell leis to welcome their arrival to the islands. Jeju Air made its inaugural flight to Saipan yesterday, from Incheon, South Korea. (DENNIS. B. CHAN)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\u201cWe always try to open a new opportunity\u2026 especially where the market is controlled by a single carrier. Especially in Korea, there is limited options for the customers and the market, so as the number one LCC in Korea we see the opportunity,\u201d Choi said.<\/p>\n

The low-cost carrier flies a Boeing 737-800 NG. It carries 186-189 seats, according to Choi.<\/p>\n

Flight fares vary depending on season and time of flight, according to Choi. But in general, Jeju Air targets its fares to be 20 to 30 percent lower than its competitors.<\/p>\n

The inaugural flight marked the opening of Jeju Air\u2019s second route to the Marianas region, with Guam being the other.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was very successful on Guam, I am sure we will have the same experience [here] and this will open the market for Jeju Air and all the people involved,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Currently, the airline will have one flight per day but they are planning to increase frequency as well as in other parts of Korea, according to Choi.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are going to expand our frequency very aggressively,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He described Jeju\u2019s passengers as younger, energetic, and free individual travelers and families.<\/p>\n

He said Jeju Air\u2019s \u201cfirst effort\u201d will be to establish its partnerships with the community on island.<\/p>\n

\u201cI understand the hospitality community here is very vibrant, and it is essential for us to make a partnership with the hotels, rent-a-cars, and other restaurant communities,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

On passenger spending power, he described their passengers as \u201cvery logical and value-oriented.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThey compare the fares and they value the convenience and schedule. We generally see our customers probably spend about $1,000 per head [per] visit, but that depends,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Choi said flights to Saipan are 90 percent full, and they are happy to see an escalation of the load factor and interest among local communities in South Korea to experience Saipan.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe see the market is booming and our local travelers\u2026can afford Southeast Asian markets. They have experience of those markets and are ready, so the Saipan and Guam islands would be wonderful alternatives for them,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Marianas Visitor Authority marketing manager Bruce Bateman said MVA is \u201cproud and happy\u201d to welcome Jeju Airlines to the CNMI.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is an important event for all of the CNMI. It provides an additional 60,000 seats for arriving passengers and allows families an affordable way to get here,\u201d he said, adding that the money the passengers spend will \u201cdirectly impact the economy.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Jeju Air has landed. With a fully booked flight arriving yesterday afternoon at the Saipan…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":47,"featured_media":180816,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[94,4],"tags":[26,51,970,62],"class_list":["post-180813","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-headlines","category-local-news","tag-cnmi","tag-guam","tag-jeju-air","tag-korea"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/180813","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/47"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=180813"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/180813\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/180816"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=180813"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=180813"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=180813"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}