South Korea’s six budget airlines earned more than full-service flag carrier Korea Air Lines in the first quarter with their combined income more than doubled from a year ago.

According to data from the industry and the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport on Wednesday, six low-cost names recorded a combined operating profit of 186.1 billion won ($172 million) in the January to March period, up 130.9 percent from a year ago. Revenue rose 34.2 percent to 1.2 trillion won.

They delivered strong performance after bolstering flights to popular destinations in Southeast Asia and Japan amid a surge of overseas travelers riding on stronger won and longer holidays.

The exchange rate also benefited airlines with higher ratio of foreign debts.

The nation’s largest LCC Jeju Air Co. posted best-ever quarterly performance with 46.4 billion won in operating profit and 308.6 billion won in revenue, up 70.6 percent and 28.5 percent from a year earlier, respectively. Operating profit margin reached 15 percent. It has been in the black since the third quarter in 2014.

The second biggest Jin Air Co. owned by Korea Air also performed its best with operating profit at 53.1 billion won and sales at 279.8 billion won.

Total operating profit of the LCCs exceeded that of Korean Air Lines whose profit fell 4.3 percent to 176.8 billion won despite revenue gain of 7.4 percent to 3.2 trillion won due to incentives paid out to employees.

By Moon Ji-woong and Choi Mira

[ⓒ Pulse by Maeil Business Newspaper & mk.co.kr, All rights reserved]