Eastar to resume flights this month with AOC approval

Eastar Jet, a Korean low-cost carrier, said Tuesday it will resume flights later this month as it has received an air operator certificate from the transport ministry. Eastar, a China-focused carrier, has suspended most of its flights on domestic and international routes since March 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and its AOC became ineffective in May that year. The budget carrier plans to resume services, starting with flights on the Gimpo-Jeju route later this month, the company said. The carrier currently has three B737-800 chartered planes, sharply down from 23 aircraft before the pandemic hit the airline industry three years ago. The 23 planes served a total of 38 domestic and international routes before the pandemic. Eastar applied for court receivership in January 2021 as it had failed to find a strategic investor since July 2020, when Jeju Air, the country's biggest budget carrier, scrapped its plan to acquire Eastar amid the pandemic. In November 2021, local property developer Sung Jung Company acquired the entire stake in Eastar through a rights issue following the carrier's overall stock cancellation worth 48.5b won ($40m). Sung Jung injected 112b won into Eastar.<br/>