Air Busan Co., a budget carrier unit of Asiana Airlines Inc., said Wednesday it has expanded flights on the Busan-Saipan route to preemptively respond to pent-up travel demand amid rising vaccinations and eased virus curbs.

On Jan. 23, Air Busan began to offer one flight per week on the Saipan route following a travel bubble agreement with Saipan, a quarantine-free travel partnership between two or more cities or countries with similar levels of COVID-19 cases.

Starting Wednesday, the low-cost carrier will fly two flights per week to Saipan, the company said in a statement.

On top of five domestic routes, the company currently offers flights on two international routes -- the southern port city of Busan to Qingdao, China, and Saipan -- sharply down from 25 international routes before the pandemic hit the airline industry.

It has 25 A321 chartered planes, but half of them are parked due to the prolonged pandemic. (Yonhap)