News
South Korea’s passengers grew 9.8% in 2015 but safety lapses also increased
February 5th 2016
South Korea’s Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport (MLIT) reported that despite the MERS outbreak, air passenger numbers in 2015 grew 9.8% year-on-year, to a record 89.4 million. Read More » The MLIT said expanding LCC operations, low fares due to declining oil prices and the increasing popularity of Jeju Island as a destination produced the positive numbers. Domestic passengers increased 13.5%, to 28 million, and international passengers improved 8.2%, to 61.4 million.
LCCs accounted for the majority of the growth. Jeju Air registered 2.9 million passengers (+36%), followed by Jin Air’s two million (+49.5%), Air Busan with 1.6 million (+29.4%), EastarJet with 1.3 million (+22%) and T’Way Airlines’ 1.1 million (+58.3%). Korean Air and Asiana Airlines reported 17.6 and 12.9 million passengers, respectively, which is equivalent to 5.9% and 3.6% growth.
The growth of South Korean LCCs comes at the expense of inadequate investment in safety. The MLIT last Thursday outlined a new set of safety guidelines that required all of the country’s LCCs to employ six sets of pilots and twelve type-certified mechanics for each aircraft in its fleet. In addition, there must be one fully operational aircraft available for use as a substitute in the event of mechanical issues that prejudice safety on a scheduled service.
The welcome initiative followed two recent incidents at Jeju Air and Jin Air. On December 23, the pilot of a Jeju Air flight from Seoul to Jeju did not flip the switch to provide air to the cabin. He was supposed to check the switch before and after take-off and again when the plane reached an altitude of 3.04 kilometres, but he failed to do so.
On January 3, a Jin Air B737 returned to Cebu with an improperly closed door which resulted in a pressurisation failure. The faulty door was first flagged on December 30, but was declared airworthy by mechanics the next day. Passengers reported ear problems and nausea.
Flag carrier, Korean Air (KAL), swung back into the black during fourth-quarter 2015, but only because of significant currency gains, which helped reduce its outstanding U.S. dollar debt. Net profit reported for the October-December quarter was 92.1 billion won ($76.6 million), a turnaround from a loss of 271.9 billion won a year earlier. Operating income shrank 2% year-on-year, to 149.8 billion won, and sales dropped 1.2% to 2.92 trillion won. For the entire year of 2015, KAL’s net loss widened to 703 billion won from the previous year's loss of 457.8 billion.
This year also looks challenging for KAL. It faces a large-scale pilot walk-out in a pay dispute. The airline wants to settle on a 1.9% pay rise over 2015 levels and the pilots are demanding a 37% pay increase.
