Eastar Jet (ESR; ) is a South Korean

low-cost carrier A low-cost carrier (LCC) or low-cost airline, also called a budget, or discount carrier or airline, is an airline that is operated with an emphasis on minimizing operating costs. It sacrifices certain traditional airline luxuries for cheaper fa ...

with its headquarters in

Gangseo-gu Gangseo-gu (), or "''west of river'' district," is the name of a ''gu'' in 2 South Korean cities: * Gangseo District, Busan * Gangseo District, Seoul See also * Kangso-guyok, district of Nampo, North Korea {{Set index ...

Seoul Seoul, officially Seoul Special Metropolitan City, is the capital city, capital and largest city of South Korea. The broader Seoul Metropolitan Area, encompassing Seoul, Gyeonggi Province and Incheon, emerged as the world's List of cities b ...

History

Eastar Jet was established on October 26, 2007, and its air operator's certificate was acquired 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 an American narrow-body aircraft, narrow-body aircraft produced by Boeing at its Boeing Renton Factory, Renton factory in Washington (state), Washington. Developed to supplement the Boeing 727 on short and thin routes, the t ...

. It commenced operations on its second route - Cheongju-Jeju - on June 12, 2009. Six months later, 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 Ri ...

, 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 on July 27, 2016; it is the fifth member of the alliance. On 2 March 2020, Jeju Air, one of the South Korean low-cost carriers decided to take over the management rights of Eastar Jet and signed a stock trading contract. Jeju Air agreed to acquire a 51.17% stake in Eastar Jet cost of 54.5 billion won, and the plan got approval from the 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 and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

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

mergers and acquisitions Mergers and acquisitions (M&A) are business transactions in which the ownership of a company, business organization, or one of their operating units is transferred to or consolidated with another entity. They may happen through direct absorpt ...

and selected three companies. Eastar Jet also began restructuring, the plan included reduction of its fleet of 16 aircraft to four and reduce the labor force from 1,200 to 400; however, Jeju Air would rehire all of its dismissed employees. On June 17, 2021, it was announced that Eastar Jet was set to be acquired for more than US$97 million by property developer and preferred bidder Sung Jung, following an auction of the airline. However, Sung Jung sold the entire stake of Eastar Jet to VIG Partners, a private equity fund company, in January 2023. Eastar Jet resumed operations in 2023 with three aircraft, supported by an investment from private equity firm VIG Partners. By the end of 2023, the airline had expanded its fleet to 10 aircraft. During 2024, the fleet was expanded to 15 aircraft with the addition of four Boeing 737-800s and one Boeing 737 MAX 8. An additional 12 Boeing 737 MAX 8s were purchased. This time, the contract is for new planes rather than used ones, and the airline plans to take delivery of seven in 2025 and five in 2026, increasing the fleet to 27 aircraft by 2026. According to AirPortal, an aviation information system of the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, the number of domestic passengers of Eastar Jet between January and October 2024 was 2.2 million and 1.48 million international flights, recovering to about 72% from 2019 (2.59 million domestic and 2.5 million international).

Destinations

, Eastar Jet flies to the following destinations:

Codeshare agreements

Eastar Jet codeshares with the following airlines: * Spring Airlines * T'way Air

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

*
Instagram

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