Jeju Air, South Korea’s No. 1 budget carrier, said Tuesday that it had expanded its market share in domestic flights that go through Jejudo Island in the third quarter.

The company, owned by convenience product manufacturer and retailer Aekyung Industrial Co., said its passenger traffic share reached 16.5 percent in the three-month period, up 1.4 percentage points from the year before.

This placed it as the clear leader among the country’s five low-cost carriers, while helping the company reduce the gap with full service airlines such as Korea Air Lines Co. and Asiana Airlines Inc.

“Jeju Air ferried 934,000 people in the July-September period, up 23 percent from a year earlier,” the company said in a press release. Korean Air, the country’s largest flag carrier, handled 1.31 million people with Asiana trailing at 1.18 million. (Yonhap)