On Sept. 1, the low cost carrier plans to inaugurate the Jeju Island-Tokyo route to strengthen its services as South Korea's six budget carriers compete with each other for a bigger share of passenger traffic. The five other LCCs are Jin Air, Jeju Air, Air Busan Co., Air Seoul Inc. and Eastar Jet.

Jeju is a popular resort island off the country's southwestern coast while Busan is South Korea's largest sea port, 453 km southeast of Seoul.

Meanwhile, T'way Air, a unit 80-percent owned by T'way Holdings, outlined the so-called 2025 plan which includes an expansion of its fleet and new plane leases and even purchases.

To serve on long-haul routes, the country's fifth-biggest budget carrier by sales plans to acquire 10 large passenger jets by 2025 from Airbus or Boeing to expand its fleet, the company's  Air Chief Executive Jeong Hong-geun told reporters Thursday.

"The country's six budget carriers are competing with each other mainly in Asian markets. While seeking a share in the short-haul Asian route markets, we will explore new low-cost travel demand in the mid- and long-range route markets for sustainable growth," Jeong said.

He cited an unspecified city in the US and Frankfurt, Germany as initial long-range service route destinations followed by London, Paris and Rome in Europe as the next targets.

T'way Air currently serves 39 routes to eight countries -- Japan and seven other Asian countries with a fleet of 18 B737-800 jets, all leased from Boeing. It aims to reinforce the fleet to 30 jets by 2020 and 50 by 2025. (Yonhap)