A new domestic passenger airline will be launching in South Korea early next year in competition with established players Asiana Airlines and Korean Air, writes Leithen Francis.
Chung Cheong Airlines' forthcoming launch is significant because it will be South Korea's first low-cost carrier and the country's first operator of ATR 72s, says the airline's chief of flight operations Jason Cho.
Cho says the airline has signed five-and-a-half-year operating leases with the manufacturer for two ATR 72-200s, with the first to be delivered by the end of October and the second arriving three months after that. ATR will provide maintenance support and four pilot instructors and examiners, who will train Chung Cheong Airlines' first four South Korean pilots.
"We will be starting on the air operator's certificate [AOC] application in September...[and aim] to launch in January or February," says Cho.
Its first services will be from its Cheong Ju hub to Jeju island, south of the Korean peninsular, and to Seoul's Gimpo airport. Towards the end of 2005 the airline hopes to launch services to Japanese cities.
Cho declines to disclose the identity of the airline's owner, but says the carrier has the support of the Cheong Ju government, which has provided support and acted as a go-between for the airline and South Korea's ministry of construction and transport.
Source: Flight International
