Jeju Air, the biggest low-cost carrier of the Republic of Korea (RoK), announced on November 22 that it has opened direct routes to Phu Quoc Island of Vietnam and Bohol Island of the Philippines.

It began to operate flights on the routes from Incheon International Airport in Seoul on November 21.

The routes were launched amid a drop in Korean people’s demand for travel to Japan due to a trade row between the two countries.

Jeju Air shifted to a net loss of 30.1 billion won (27 million USD) in the third quarter of 2019 from a net profit of 31.1 billion won a year earlier.

It said Korean travellers have increasingly opted not to travel to Japan due to Japan's export curbs, dealing a blow to the quarterly earnings results. The won's weakness against the US dollar also weighed on the bottom line.

The airline operates 45 B737-800s on six domestic routes and 70 international routes, mainly to Singapore and other Southeast Asian countries.