Air Premia (YP, Seoul Incheon) plans to drum up capital with two rights offerings this year and double the size of its widebody fleet by 2025, its chief executive Yoo Myung-Seop has told the Korea Economic Daily (Hankyung) in an interview. The company then aims to go public by 2026 to further fund growth to 20 aircraft by 2030, he added.
Yoo took over as CEO in November 2021 after working for 26 years at Korean Air (KE, Seoul Incheon) and for six years at the country’s biggest budget carrier by fleet size, Jeju Air (7C, Jeju), mainly focusing on sales and marketing.
“Through two paid-in capital increases this year we will increase the number of large aircraft to nine by 2025. We plan to list on the stock market in three years and operate a total of 20 units by 2030,” he told the newspaper on June 4.
According to the ch-aviation fleets module, Air Premia currently operates four active B787-9s and took delivery of its fifth of the type in late May. It deploys them on six long-haul routes with a total of 25 weekly frequencies, linking Seoul with Los Angeles International, Bangkok Suvarnabhumi, Tokyo Narita, Ho Chi Minh City, Oslo Gardermoen, and since May 22, New York Newark, according to ch-aviation capacities data. Frankfurt International will start on June 27, and it has also scheduled charter flights this summer to Barcelona El Prat and Dhaka.
Long-haul travel has many variables, Yoo said, and the self-described hybrid carrier will drive its business through the efficiency and price competitiveness of low-cost carriers. “Norwegian in Europe could not maintain this business model due to financial difficulties,” he explained. “We are approaching with a different strategy, such as lowering the 'price hurdle'.”
It is also pitching itself as an alternative for routes that Korean Air and Asiana Airlines (OZ, Seoul Incheon) may have to release to competitors if their merger is to clear regulators. To allay monopoly concerns, Korean Air proposed handing some of its international routes to Air Premia, but the United States Department of Justice is reportedly sceptical of the proposal as Air Premia would not be big enough to challenge the combined entity. The DOJ and the European Commission are due to deliver their verdicts on the proposed acquisition by July 5.
“We are discussing countermeasures to this based on various scenarios,” Yoo said on the matter.
