South Korea’s largest budget airline Jeju Air plans to increase its number of flights during the peak summer travel season on both domestic and international routes from its gateway hub in Jeju in a bid to strengthen its market position.

The Jeju-based airline said Monday that it would increase the total number of flights to 415 per week, up 33.2 percent from the same period a year earlier. The peak summer season lasts from March 29 to Oct. 24. 

“Expanding domestic flights is part of the company’s effort to raise its market position by increasing its share of passengers on domestic flights to and from Jejudo Island to 20 percent,” a Jeju Air official said.

According to data from the Korea Airports Corporation, Jeju Air carried 630,450 passengers on domestic routes to and from Jeju during the first two months this year, taking up 18.6 percent of the total number of passengers on the routes.

The budget airline will newly launch three international routes from Busan to Osaka and Fukuoka in Japan and Taipei in Taiwan. It will also operate additional flights on the Busan-Guam and Incheon-Saipan routes, starting March 29.

With the confirmed air schedule for the summer 2015 season, Jeju Air has the biggest route network among the nation’s low-cost carriers, spanning 28 destinations to 18 cities in eight countries, according to the airline.

Jeju Air, which aims to roughly triple its sales to 1.5 trillion won ($1.3 billion) by 2020, plans to launch an initial public offering in the fourth quarter.

Last week, Jeju Air confirmed that it is in talks with Singapore Airlines to draw investment.

By Park Han-na (hnpark@heraldcorp.com)