The final flight I’ll talk about is one with Jeju Air, again from Busan Gimhae to Jeju onboard one of their Boeing 737-800s. This was the second flight I took with the airline, the first being from Jeju to Busan. Enjoy!

Jeju Air was one of the first Korean LCCs, founded in 2005 it flies across Asia with a fleet of mostly second hand 20 738s. The airline flies to Cambodia, China, Guam, Hong Kong, Japan, the Philippines, Saipan, Thailand and Vietnam as well as having an extensive route network connecting Jeju to cities on the Korean mainland.

I booked this flight via Jeju Air’s website which was easy enough to do, I had no difficulties using the English language option and my foreign card worked just fine. Seat reservations could be done for an extra 3000 won although if you check in early enough I reckon you’d be able to get the seat you want. On domestic flights the airline offers a Korean LCC standard of 15kg of checked luggage and 20kg on international flights.

Not wanting to spend vast amounts of time inside Busan’s domestic terminal, I arrived 40 minutes prior to departure and checked in at the airline’s counter. Fortunately I didn’t have to queue for long. There was a slight queue for security although this went down fairly quickly and I was airside with a good half hour to spend. Unfortunately there was no sign of a Jeju Air aircraft on the apron which led me to believe our flight would be late. I was correct and a sign was put up informing us of both a gate change and a delay to do ‘aircraft connection’, I didn’t have anywhere to be although I was a little surprised that none of the ground staff knew when the aircraft would turn up nor when we would start boarding.


The delay

FLIGHT
From – Busan Gimhae, RKPK
To – Jeju International, RKPC
Airline – Jeju Air
Flight – 7C 511
A/C – Boeing 737-8BK
Reg – HL8261
Dep Time (Sched/Act) – 14:25/15:15
Arr Time (Sched/Act) – 15:20/15:58

I checked FR24 on my phone but there was no sign of the flight, although I eventually spotted the orange and white of a Jeju Air aircraft as it floated down to Busan’s runway 32L. At 14:50 boarding at gate 33 began and we climbed up to the aircraft via a set of airstairs atop of a vintage Ford.
Today’s aircraft would be HL8261, a 737 that stared its career in Australia in August 2002, flying as Blue Moon for Virgin Blue and thus for Virgin Australia post 2011. The aircraft entered service for Jeju Air in September 2012 and has been pictured across East Asia.



Climbing onboard

As per usual I was given a friendly greeting when I boarded and made my way to seat 8A. I have to say despite being clean and well organised; the aircraft was a little worn. Jeju Air fabric covered the seats (unlike on my previous Jeju Air flight where the fabric may have dated back to the aircraft’s Air Sahara days!) however there were signs of the past owner such as the dark blue plastic armrests with audio controls and the large plastic space on each seat which looked as if it once held a PTV. The legroom seemed to be a fairly cramped standard amount, nothing special.
After a very apologetic welcome from the crew we were off and after a short taxi to runway 36R we made our way into the sky, departing 50 minutes behind schedule. We made a sharp turn southwards after takeoff however at this point we entered the clouds so nothing could be seen of the mountains beneath us.


The view from my 8A


Banking after takeoff






Cloudsurfing

During the later stages of the climb, the crew began their round of drinks. Unlike on Air Busan and Jin Air we were able to choose what beverage we had, I opted for an orange juice. When we reached our cruising altitude the captain performed a speech in Korean and English and shortly afterwards we began our decent. Again we’d be landing on runway 07, sitting on the left hand side meant that I couldn’t really see much of the island until the later stages of the approach, although I was able to get good views once over the island.


A fairly plasticy seat back, perhaps where a PTV once was?


The service onboard


The skies cleared as we neared Jeju


Over sunny Jeju


Getting closer


And closer

We came back to earth gently and made a smooth touchdown at 15:58, 38 minutes behind schedule. After a taxi which involved holding for an aircraft to vacate our gate, we pulled up to gate 2. The jetway was connected in what seemed like no time at all, being near the front I departed the aircraft quickly and walked straight through to arrivals.

SUMMARY
In terms of onboard service, I have no complaints in fact it is just as good as on a domestic flight with a full service airline. Where Jeju Air lacks behind is comfort, the seats do seemed to be a bit squished together which on a full flight can cause you to feel rather cramped. On both this flight and my other one with Jeju Air the aircraft showed some signs of the aircraft’s age with some wear and tear visible. That said, for the price of the flight I can’t really complain. Would I be willing to fly with them again? Yes, of course. But perhaps only on a flight less than two hours i.e. a domestic one or one to Japan or nearby areas of China. That said, if they offered cheap tickets to SE Asia, Guam or HK, I would probably book these. Overall, despite the delay, not a bad flight Jeju Air. Thank you.

KOREA LCC SUMMARY
Through my flights with Air Busan, Jeju Air and Jin Air, I have learned several things. Firstly, they all offer fairly high levels of service. On many domestic flights, the service on LCCs is identical to on Korean Air or Asiana i.e. a single round of drinks. Not only this but the crews are just as professional, the aircraft just as clean and free hold luggage is included (which is only 5kg less than that offered by the full service airlines). This raises the question of is it worth flying domestically on a full service airline in Korea, well from what I have said, you may be thinking it may not be and honestly I have to say unless I am just a standard passenger (i.e. not interested in flying on a certain type or trying a new product) it probably wouldn’t be worth paying extra just to fly on a full service airline. However surprisingly, the full service airlines often offer flights at comparable prices or even cheaper than their LCC counterparts!
Anyway, Thank you and I hope you have enjoyed reading this!

Up next will be:
ICN-DOH-LHR Qatar Airways 777-300ER and Airbus A380