Air China launches Beijing-Jeju Island service

BEIJING – Air China, one of China’s largest airlines, starts non-stop flights between Beijing and Jeju Island of the Republic of Korea on June 11. It will be the 11th destination of Air China to Korea.

 

The flight by Boeing 737-800 aircraft, leaves Beijing at 6:00 p.m. and arrives at 9:35 p.m. (Seoul time) the same day. The return is scheduled to take off at 10:35 p.m. and arrive at Beijing Capital International Airport at 12:10 a.m. the next day. The service will be served on a daily basis.

Air China will offer a total capacity of 4,293 seats per month. A number which however remains relatively small. 
 

On Beijing-Seoul, Air China offers per month 29,295 seats while the two busiest other routes served by the national Chinese carrier are Qingdao-Seoul  with 9,889 seats/month and Tianjin-Seoul with 9,858 seats/month.
 

Jeju Island is turning increasingly popular for Chinese tourists. In 2013, nearly 2 million trips to Jeju Island were made by Chinese tourists, the largest among foreign visitors, boosted by its visa-free policy towards individual and group visitors implemented in 2008. The largest number of travellers remain Koreans which generated in 2013 over 8.5 million of trips to the Korean “Hawaii”. 
 

Chinese represent now 78% of all foreign travellers coming to Jeju (2.3 million last year). Being only an hour and  a half away from Shanghai by flight, Jeju is turning into a great alternative for wealthy Chinese travellers. Jeju is also a major draw for Chinese gamblers as the island record half of all South Korea 16 casinos. Most of them are off-limits to locals but they are opened for foreigners.  A few weeks ago, the Island gained unfortunately fame following the tragedy of a seeking ferry which left hundreds of passengers lost at sea. The boat transported some 475 travellers.

 

(Partial source from Xinhua)