South Korean budget carrier Eastar Jet Co. would be left with a quarter of employees compared with March once it is done with laying off in mass scale.

Eastar Jet let go 605 employees on Thursday and is left with around 590. The second redundancy notice will be followed soon to reduce the payroll to 400, or a quarter of 1,616 count at the end of March.

The company said the streamlining is inevitable as it only runs a fleet of six.

Eastar has been downsizing to reduce cost in hopes to draw investors and capital after planned sale to bigger rival Jeju Air Co. flopped.

By Song Gwang-sup and Lee Ha-yeon

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