Budget Airline Blog

Korean Air’s budget affiliate has disclosed its corporate identity (CI) along with new name “Jin Air.”

Jin Air, which will start operation of the Gimpo-Jeju route on July 17, made public its image, models of aircraft and cabin crew uniform at an inauguration ceremony held in downtown Seoul Sunday.

The carrier has abandoned the tentative name of Air Korea and adopted Jin Air, which has the same pronunciation as the Chinese character meaning “truth” and “sincerity.” Its slogan is “Fly, better fly ? Jin Air.”

Pursuing “freshness” and “pragmatism,” the budget airline showed unconventionality in many aspects.

The logo is a butterfly in blue and purple with a yellowish green background ? the butterfly signifies that passengers can fly freely wherever they want. The carrier’s B737-800 aircraft is colored in the yellowish green, a rare color among airlines.

Sri Lanka’s state-run budget carrier has suspended operations indefinitely because of a lack of planes, an aviation official said Sunday.

The budget airline, Mihin Lanka, has been dogged with financial trouble since it began commercial operations last April.

“They (Mihin) don’t have an aircraft to fly passengers since the beginning of this month,” Sri Lanka’s civil aviation chief, Parakrama Dissanayake told AFP.

Mihin’s last aircraft, an Airbus A321 taken on lease, was reclaimed by its Bulgarian owners at the end of April, as the airline was unable to make payments, an airline industry source, who declined to be named, said.

South African budget airline Nationwide stopped operations with immediate effect Tuesday because of financial problems.

The company has a fleet of 17 planes which mainly cover domestic and short haul routes, with flights to London three times per week. It was not immediately clear how many passengers were stranded.

“Our cash-flow has become critical and as a result we have decided to voluntarily cease all flight operations until further notice,” Nationwide chief executive Vernon Bricknell said in a statement carried by the South African Press Association.

OasisHongKong Airlines, a long-distance budget carrier that tried to offer premium service and spacious seats at low prices, suddenly went into liquidation Wednesday and canceled all flights, the fourth budget carrier to halt operations in the past week and a half.

The bankruptcy filing by Oasis stranded thousands of passengers in Hong Kong, London and Vancouver, British Columbia. Many of the would-be passengers stuck in Hong Kong are children trying to return to British boarding schools after going home for the spring break.

High jet fuel prices have taken a heavy toll on the airline industry and particularly on budget carriers trying to compete on price with low profit margins. The other three to shut down since March 31, all in the United States, are Aloha Airgroup, ATA Airlines and Skybus Airlines.

The popular Singapore to Kuala Lumpur route has been monopolised for the past thirty years by the two nations carriers, Singapore and Malaysia Airways.

As of today the budget airlines have been allowed a piece of the cake. Air Asia will fly twice daily from KL. While Tiger and Jetstar Asia will fly once a day from Singapore.

 Almost two and a half million people where carried over this route last year. Including the budget airlines there will now be 254 flights each week. 

The old average price for a return ticket was around $3200USD but the low-cost carriers will be offering prices from around $140USD.

 Welcome news for budget travellers and backpackers.

Nepal finally gets a piece of the budget airline pie with the launch of FlyYeti, a low cost international airline.

International air connections with Nepal are limited to the main big players (Cathay Pacific, Thai and Singapore, to name a few) who all charge high prices for flights into Himalaya kingdom.

Searching for a discounted fare into Nepal was like climbing Everest on the back of a Yak. Now you can call off the search for a bargain flight in and out of Kathmandu as Air Arabia has launched a subsidiary airline - “FlyYeti”, Nepal’s first low-cost carrier.

FlyYeti will allow pasengers an inexpensive way to connect Kathmandu with India,the far east, South Asia and central Asia.

Its welcome news for budget travellers and backpackers who want to experience the great heights of the Himalaya.