Jeju Air shares fell to a low after the plane crash, according to Reuters

By Jihoon Lee and Yoon Ah Moon

SEOUL (Reuters) – Shares in South Korea’s budget carrier Jeju Air hit a record high on Monday, after 179 people died in the country’s deadliest air crash.

Shares of Jeju Air were down 8.5% by 0312 GMT, having already lost 15.7% in the session to 6,920 won, the lowest since they were listed in 2015. 65.2 million USD) in market capitalization.

Shares of AK Holdings, Jeju Air, fell as much as 12 percent to a 16-year low.

In the year

South Korea’s Acting President Choi Sang-mok on Monday ordered an emergency safety inspection of the country’s entire airline operations system once recovery work from the Jeju air crash is completed.

Among other budget carriers, Air Busan rose more than 15 percent. Gene Air (KS: ) and T’way Air fell after rising as much as 5.4% and 7.3%, respectively.

South Korea’s two major airlines, Korean Air, fell 1.3% and Asiana Airlines fell 0.8%.

“It will take time to assess the cause of the accident, but it is inevitable that customers’ feelings will be affected, because reliability is important for budget carriers whose seats and services are not very different from each other,” said analyst Yang Seung-yeon. Eugene Investment Securities.

“In terms of overall travel demand, there may be some cancellations in the short term, but it is unlikely to be structurally weak.”

Travel agencies have halted their advertising and promotional events, tour package cancellations have doubled and reservations for one operator have halved, Yonhap news agency reported.

Many of the victims of the worst plane crash in the nation’s history appear to have returned from vacation for the holiday season, officials said.

Travel agency stocks also weakened, with Hanator Services down 7 percent and Excellent Tours down 11 percent.

($1 = 1,467.9500 won)