JEJU ISLAND -- AirAsia X, the long-haul arm of the AirAsia group, on Wednesday celebrated the launch of its direct route between Jeju Island and Kuala Lumpur, operating four times weekly.

“We see great potential for two-way crossflows of traffic between Kuala Lumpur, Jeju and beyond through our connectivities,” said AirAsia X Chairwoman Tan Sri Rafidah Aziz at a press conference held at Lotte City Hotel on Jeju Island.

AirAsia X already operates routes to Kuala Lumpur flying out of Incheon and Busan, with both routes currently in talks with the Transport Ministry to increase their frequencies “over the next few months,” according to Benymain Ismail, CEO of AirAsia X.

With the newly established Jeju route, AirAsia X is looking to take advantage of first-mover status as the only airline flying directly to Jeju Island from Southeast Asia.

The first flight on the Jeju route took off from Kuala Lumpur on Tuesday. Despite concerns about low demand for seats from Korea to Kuala Lumpur, the return flight from Jeju Island took off Wednesday with a load factor of 97 percent, which was “above expectations” according to Ismail.

“In Jeju, the second-largest tourist arrivals are from Malaysia behind China,” Ismail said. “But they‘ve all been flying in through Incheon or Busan. We’re giving them the opportunity to fly directly into Jeju.”

“In the past, we saw a small amount of Korean outbound travelers, but we’ve seen a huge increase since then,” Ismail added. “I don’t think that will stop, and as long as we can educate Korean travelers about our destination network and maintain low fares, I don’t think (demand) will be a problem.” 

By Won Ho-jung (hjwon@heraldcorp.com)