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Korean Air Suggests New Travel Combining Hakodate and Aomori Routes,
Aiming to Vitalize Regional Markets Early-June 2008
Marking the 2nd anniversary of its Hakodate/ Seoul service,
Korean Air aims to stimulate traffic demand for the Hakodate route,
launching a product with a unique travel itinerary.
The product features an outbound travel by Hakodate/ Seoul flight
on Tuesday and an inbound by Seoul/ Aomori flight with a train or a
high speed ferry "Natchan Rera" of the Higashi Nihon Ferry to return
home to Hakodate from Aomori.
Four travel agents, H.I.S., JR Hokkaido, JTB Hokkaido and Tour
Wave have jointly launched a package tour "Super Tuesday",
celebrating Korean Air's second anniversary of the Hakodate/ Seoul
flight. There are 7 departures planned every Tuesday from June 10 to
July 22 with a price range between39,800 yen and 100,000 yen. The
Hakodate/ Seoul route is currently operated 3 times a week on Sunday,
Tuesday and Thursday and the Aomori/ Seoul route on Monday, Friday
and Sunday.
Linking the two cities, Shigeru Kishida, General Manager of
Korean Air Hakodate said that the airline can realize nearly daily
operation even from local cities, indicating that "A combination of
Hakodate and Aomori service brings a great advantage to the local
markets."
This 2nd flight-year anniversary project is to vitalize the
tourism markets in Hakodate and Aomori for both outbound and inbound
traffic while intending to stimulate traffic demand especially from
Hakodate.
Although Hakodate Airport enjoys a robust inbound traffic, it
continues to suffer a year-on-year decrease of Japanese outbound
travelers reflecting a sluggish market demand in 2006 and 2007. Both
cities, Aomori and Hakodate, however, have been deepening exchanges
between them since the Seikan Tunnel was completed connecting two
cities.
Consequently, City of Aomori has encouraged the joint project to
be realized, supporting taxi transfer from Aomori Airport to its
seaport for the ferry back to Hakodate. Korean Air has been boosting
passenger traffic to Hawaii from airports across the country. A group
from Hachinohe City in Aomori Prefecture, according to Kishida of
Korean Air, has also traveled to Hawaii, flying from Aomori Airport
and back to Hakodate Airport with the Natchan Rera ferry home to
Aomori, thus realizing a "Fly and Sea or Train" itinerary.
A similar travel featuring a new transportation system such as
the Natchan Rera should appeal to Korean customers and should also
help attract traffic demand from Aomori," said Kishida of Korean Air.
Depending on the sales outcome of the "Super Tuesday" tour
series, the airline anticipates to launch various strategies to
reactivate the regional market demand, making use of both the
Hakodate and Aomori routes in efforts to attract inbound traffic to
Aomori's Nebuta Festival, let alone, to boost the outbound traffic
from Japan during the peak summer season.
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