Air Busan, a budget carrier unit of Asiana Airlines, said Monday it has opened the Busan-Saipan route following a travel bubble agreement. On Sunday, Air Busan began to offer one flight per week on the Saipan route to preemptively respond to pent-up travel demand amid rising vaccinations and eased virus curbs, the company said. On top of five domestic routes, the company offers flights on two international routes from the southern port city of Busan to Qingdao and Saipan, sharply down from 25 international routes before the pandemic hit the airline industry. It has 25 A321 chartered planes, but half of them are parked due to the prolonged pandemic. <br/>
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Jeju Air, South Korea's biggest low-cost carrier, said Monday it will adopt a cargo plane for the first time among local LCCs to ride out the prolonged COVID-19 pandemic. Jeju Air plans to begin operating a cargo plane in the first half of this year to offset a sharply declined passenger travel demand amid the pandemic, the company said. Korean Air Lines and Asiana Airlines, the country's two biggest and full-service carriers, have focused on winning cargo deals to offset lower travel demand in the past two years. To preemptively respond to pent-up travel demand amid rising vaccinations, Jeju Air also plans to add 50 chartered B737-8 MAX passenger jets to its fleet between 2023 and 2027. Jeju Air currently has 39 chartered B737-800NG passenger jets and offers flights on 10 domestic routes and one flight a week on six international routes to Bangkok, Guam, Saipan, Harbin, Weihai and Tokyo. <br/>
Malaysia’s flagship budget airline AirAsia Group Bhd is in early acquisition discussions for air cargo carrier Raya Airways to beef up its logistics business, The Edge Weekly reported on Saturday citing sources. The business weekly said the airline has approached businessman Ishak Ismail whose family owns Raya Airways, to acquire the carrier, and are in early conversations, according to people familiar with the matter. AirAsia and Raya Airways did not immediately respond to requests for comment. AirAsia’s logistics unit Teleport said in November it was aiming to expand its fleet of cargo planes and scale up its freight business. Top executives at Raya Airways were not keen to sell the carrier, however, as they have plans for an initial public offering, the report said. AirAsia was last week classified as a PN17 firm by Malaysia’s stock exchange, a tag given to financially distressed firms. It said it was working on a plan to “regularise its financial condition”.<br/>