Jeju Air earned an operating profit of 18.7 billion in the fourth quarter of last year … “Turned to profit in 15 quarters”

Jeju Air managed to turn a profit in the fourth quarter of last year after 15 quarters.

Jeju Air announced on the 7th that it recorded an operating profit of 18.7 billion won in the fourth quarter of last year. Jeju Air recorded a surplus for the first time in 15 quarters since the second quarter of 2019. Sales were KRW 299.4 billion, up 241% from the same period last year (KRW 87.9 billion).

Jeju Air believes it has managed to turn a profit by preemptively expanding the supply of routes to Japan. In October last year, Jeju Air resumed operations on major Korea-Japan routes, including Tokyo (Narita), Osaka, and Fukuoka, at the same time as resuming visa-free entry to Japan. For two months between October and November last year, it operated 178 routes to Japan per week and carried 344,181 passengers, ranking first in the number of passengers carried among national carriers operating routes between Korea and Japan. The number of passengers carried on domestic routes also reached 6.5 million, ranking first in domestic routes for three consecutive years from 2020.

Thanks to the change in the 4th quarter, its operating loss last year fell significantly. Jeju Air’s operating loss last year was 177.5 billion won, down 140 billion won from the previous year (317.1 billion won). During the same period, sales increased approximately 2.6 times from the previous year to 702.5 billion won.

As passenger traffic continues to improve at the start of the year, earnings are expected to improve going forward. Last month, Jeju Air recorded 973,000 passengers in total passenger transport performance for domestic and international routes, ranking second among national airlines in terms of transport performance. For now, given the unstable economic situation, the airline industry believes that the trend of favoring short-haul travel with less burden will continue.

An official from Jeju Air said, “The rebound in performance accelerated with visa-free entry to Japan, which resumed in October last year.” “The cost efficiency strategy by operating one B737-800 aircraft became the secret to overcome the crisis of high exchange rates, high oil prices and high interest rates.” .

[저작권자 @머니투데이, 무단전재 및 재배포 금지]