Jin Air’s inaugural flight arrives on Saipan

SAIPAN – Jin Air’s inaugural flight from Incheon arrived on Saipan last week with over 180 passengers, mostly Korean nationals.

The airline’s regional Saipan manager, Hong Gyu Hur, said a lot of Koreans want to visit the island for its natural beauty, blue ocean, and blue sky.

He himself likes the “natural feel” of the island, and its bright tropical colors.

He said they will have one Korea-Saipan flight each day, and the airfare is $400, one-way.

“We will start the Saipan to Korea flights on June 12,” he added.

“We will target the family and the honeymoon markets in Korea,” he said.

Korea is now the CNMI’s top tourist market.

Asked why the airline’s crewmembers were wearing jeans, Hong Gyu Hur replied: “Jeans are for young, energetic people!”

He added that if one looks closely at Jin Air’s butterfly logo “you will see an airplane shape within — the butterfly logo means aim high to the sky!”

Jin Air’s B737 has 189 passenger seats and many proven safety features, he added.

Guam

On Guam, Jin Air also recently added a Guam-Busan flight, according to the Guam Visitors Bureau.

Currently, Korean-based airlines Jeju Air, Air Busan and Korean Air also offer Busan-Guam flights.

Jin Air has also been offering scheduled direct flights to Seoul and the airline has been servicing Guam since 2010, flying between Incheon International Airport and A.B. Won Pat International Airport regularly.

Three years after initiating the Guam-Seoul route, Jin Air doubled its service and added daily flights between the two destinations. In 2014, the airline decided to start using larger aircraft with increased passenger capacity for the Seoul-Guam route.

Jin Air is one of several low-cost Korean airline carriers now offering Guam in their flight network. Jeju Air, Air Busan and T’Way Air also have flights to cities in South Korea. Jin Air is a subsidiary or Korean Air, which offers Guam-Busan and Guam-Seoul flights regularly.

Recently, the U.S. Department of Transportation approved of low-cost Korean airline carrier Eastar Jet’s application to add Seoul-Guam flights to its network.

Korea is the second largest tourism market for the island, second only to Japan and last year Guam welcomed more than 427,000 people from Korea.

There is an upward trend of visitors from Korea for this year. More than 41,500 travelers from Korea visited Guam last February, which is a 31.2 percent increase over February 2015—or almost 10,000 more people compared to the same time last year.

GVB officials have said the continued surge in Korean arrivals have helped make up for the steady decline in Japanese arrivals. Japan remains the top market for visitors.

In a statement last February, GVB general manager Nate Denight said, “While we are pleased with the growth in arrivals, there are some challenges we face in Japan with the weakening yen and Japanese travelers still choosing domestic travel.”