Budget airlines are rapidly expanding their market presence in the South Korea-Japan routes, despite an overall drop in passenger traffic between the two neighboring countries, industry data showed Tuesday.

According to figures released by Korea Airport Corp. and individual airlines, low-cost carriers from the two countries handled 756,200 passengers in the first five months of 2014. This represents an average 76 percent increase from 245,000 people they ferried between South Korea and Japan in 2012 and 561,300 serviced last year.

In contrast, full-service carriers such as Korean Air Lines, Asiana Airlines, Japan Airlines and All Nippon Airways posted a 14 percent annual drop in terms of passengers they serviced in the last three years. In the cited period, large airlines transported 1.83 million people, down sharply from 2.52 million in 2012. (Yonhap)