GGRAsia – Budget airline Fly Gangwon eyes S.Korea-Macau routes

Budget airline Fly Gangwon eyes S.Korea-Macau routes

Feb 21, 2023 Newsdesk Latest News, Macau, Rest of Asia, Top of the deck

South Korean budget airline Fly Gangwon Co Ltd would like to start a Jeju-Macau service as soon as next month, said Macau International Airport’s operator in a Tuesday release, citing comments by the airline’s management.

The carrier would like to follow up with a Macau service linking to Gangwon in the northeast of the country, and another to Incheon International Airport, near the capital Seoul.

South Korea has 17 casinos, including some on the holiday island of Jeju, but only one South Korean property – Kangwon Land, in Gangwon province – is permittted to cater to local gamblers, and according to investment-analyst commentary, is often running at full capacity. Macau presently has a public-policy aspiration to attract more overseas players to its own casinos.

Fly Gangwon sales division managing director, Chae Jeong Hoon (pictured centre), had a meeting with Macau International Airport Co Ltd – a body also known as CAM – on February 15.

Fly Gangwon aspires to a Macau-Yangyang route, the latter place a coastal county in Gangwon; as well as flights between Macau and Incheon. No further detail was given in the update regarding those ideas. According to the air carrier’s website, its operational base is Yangyang International Airport.

CAM did mention that Fly Gangwon had other regional services, including to: Taipei in Taiwan; Tokyo in Japan; Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam; and Clark in the Philippines.

Currently Incheon International Airport is the only South Korean destination linked directly to Macau, according to the latest online timetable of Macau’s airport.

In terms of March flight schedules, Air Macau – the flagship carrier of that city – will have a weekly service to Incheon.

Air Macau will from March increase its flight connections between Macau and a number of places in Southeast Asia and East Asia, and add at least one new route, reported local Chinese-language media outlets on Thursday, citing the carrier.