SEOUL, December 30 (AJP) - Jeju Air, South Korea's largest low-cost carrier (LCC) involved in Sunday's fatal crash at Muan Airport, was established in 2005 as a joint venture between AK Holdings and Jeju Special Self-Governing Province, marking nearly two decades of operations before its first major accident.
The airline, which became the first Korean budget carrier to operate international routes in 2009 and list on the stock market in 2015, operates 42 aircraft serving 50 cities across 85 routes. It carried 12.3 million passengers in 2022, with an average of 217.5 flights daily.
Prior to Sunday's incident, which claimed 179 lives when flight 7C 2216 from Bangkok crashed during landing, the airline had no fatal accidents in its history. Previous incidents included two runway overruns in 2007 and 2013, both without casualties.
The carrier reported record earnings last year with revenue of 1.72 trillion won ($1.32 billion) and operating profit of 169.8 billion won after three consecutive years of losses during the COVID-19 pandemic. AK Holdings remains the majority shareholder with 50.37 percent stake.
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