Eastar Jet (ESR) () is a South Korean

low-cost airline A low-cost carrier or low-cost airline (occasionally referred to as '' no-frills'', ''budget'' or '' discount carrier'' or ''airline'', and abbreviated as ''LCC'') is an airline that is operated with an especially high emphasis on minimizing op ...

with its headquarters in

Banghwa-dong Banghwa-dong is a '' dong'', neighbourhood of Gangseo-gu in Seoul, South Korea. Eastarjet has its headquarters in Banghwa 2-dong. Name The dong was named banghwa, because of the flowers that were abundant in Gaehwa Mountain Gaehwa-dong Gaeh ...

, Gangseo-gu,

Seoul Seoul (; ; ), officially known as the Seoul Special City, is the capital and largest metropolis of South Korea.Before 1972, Seoul was the ''de jure'' capital of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea) as stated iArticle 103 ...

. On January 7, 2009, Eastar Jet made its maiden flight from

Gimpo International Airport Gimpo International Airport (), commonly known as Gimpo Airport , formerly rendered in English as Kimpo International Airport, is located in the far western end of Seoul, some west of the Central District of Seoul. Gimpo was the main interna ...

Jeju International Airport Jeju International Airport () is the second largest airport in South Korea, just behind Incheon Airport in Incheon. It is located in the city of Jeju. The airport opened in 1968. Jeju International Airport serves many mainland destinations in ...

. Now, the airline operates a scheduled passenger network to 14 destinations in eight countries. Its main base is Gimpo International Airport, with a hub at Jeju International Airport. Eastar Jet carried 3 million domestic passengers and 2.9 million international passengers in 2018. Its international traffic has doubled over the past three years and its domestic traffic has grown by nearly 50%, indicating a stronger focus on domestic growth while the other Korean

low-cost carrier A low-cost carrier or low-cost airline (occasionally referred to as '' no-frills'', ''budget'' or '' discount carrier'' or ''airline'', and abbreviated as ''LCC'') is an airline that is operated with an especially high emphasis on minimizing op ...

s are focusing on the international market.

History

Eastar Jet was established on October 26, 2007, and acquired its

air operator's certificate An air operator's certificate (AOC) is the approval granted by a civil aviation authority (CAA) to an aircraft operator to allow it to use aircraft for commercial purposes. This requires the operator to have personnel, assets, and system in pla ...

the following year on August 6. On January 7, 2009, Eastar Jet launched its first commercial flight from Seoul to Jeju with a

Boeing 737 The Boeing 737 is a narrow-body aircraft produced by Boeing at its Renton Factory in Washington. Developed to supplement the Boeing 727 on short and thin routes, the twinjet retains the 707 fuselage width and six abreast seating with two un ...

. It commenced operations on its second route - Cheongju-Jeju - on June 12, 2009. Six months after, on December 24, 2009, Eastar Jet launched its first international flight from Incheon to

Kuching Kuching (), officially the City of Kuching, is the capital and the most populous city in the States and federal territories of Malaysia, state of Sarawak in Malaysia. It is also the capital of Kuching Division. The city is on the Sarawak River ...

, Malaysia. Within two years of commencing operations, the airline reached the 1 million mark in passengers carried on January 6, 2010. The airline joined the

U-FLY Alliance U-FLY Alliance () is a regional airline alliance based in the Chinese Special Administrative Region of Hong Kong, and made up of low-cost airlines from Hong Kong, Mainland China, and South Korea. Upon founding, it became the world's first allian ...

on July 27, 2016; it is the fifth member of the alliance. On 2 March 2020,

Jeju Air Jeju Air Co., Ltd. (), is the first and largest South Korean low-cost airline. It offers scheduled domestic services, as well as international destinations including China, Japan, Russia, the Mariana Islands, and various Southeast Asian countries ...

, one of the South Korean Low Cost Carrier has decided to take over management rights of Eastar Jet and signed a stock trading contract and Jeju Air acquires 51.17% stake of Eastar Jet cost of 54.5 billion won. and

's M&A plan got approval from Fair Trade Commission of the Republic of Korea. However, on 23 July 2020, Jeju Air announced that it was to give up the acquisition of Eastar Jet due to economic uncertainty caused by the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

. In August 2020, Eastar Jet push forward to re-

mergers and acquisitions Mergers and acquisitions (M&A) are business transactions in which the ownership of companies, other business organizations, or their operating units are transferred to or consolidated with another company or business organization. As an aspect ...

and selected three companies. Eastar Jet also began restructuring, the plan includes reduction of its fleet of 16 aircraft to 4 and reduce the labor force from 1,200 to 400, however, Jeju Air will rehire all of its dismissed staff. On June 17, 2021, it was announced that Eastar Jet is set to be acquired for more than US$97 million by property developer and preferred bidder Sung Jung, following an auction for the airline.

Destinations

, Eastar Jet flies to the following destinations:

Codeshare agreements

The airline has a

codeshare agreement A codeshare agreement, also known simply as codeshare, is a business arrangement, common in the aviation industry, in which two or more airlines publish and market the same flight under their own airline designator and flight number (the "airli ...

with following airlines: *

Spring Airlines Spring Airlines Co., Ltd. () is a low-cost carrier with its headquarters in the Homeyo Hotel () in Changning District, Shanghai, China. While the company adopted the English name "Spring Airlines", the Chinese name literally means "Spring Autumn ...

T'way Air T'way Air Co., Ltd. (), formerly Hansung Airlines, is a South Korean low-cost airline based in Seongsu-dong, Seongdong-gu, Seoul. In 2018, it is the third largest Korean low-cost carrier in the international market, carried 2.9 million domestic ...

Fleet

Current fleet

, Eastar Jet operates an all-

fleet composed of the following aircraft:

Retired Fleet

Eastar Jet has previously operated the following aircraft types:

References

External links

* {{Airlines of South Korea South Korean companies established in 2007 Low-cost carriers Airlines of South Korea Airlines established in 2007 Companies based in Seoul South Korean brands U-FLY Alliance