This photo shows an Air Busan passenger jet. Korea Times file

Air Busan, a budget carrier unit of Asiana Airlines Inc., said Tuesday it will open the Incheon-Qingdao route next month to preemptively prepare for a recovering demand amid eased travel restrictions.

Air Busan will deploy the 232-seat A321neo jet to provide one flight a week on the Incheon-Qingdao route from Sept. 2, the company said in a statement.

The low-cost carrier currently offers one flight a week on the Busan-Qingdao route. It operates no other routes to China.

Air Seoul, another budget carrier unit of Asiana, is the only carrier which has offered the Incheon-Qingdao route amid the COVID-19 pandemic in the country.

In July, Air Busan opened three international routes ― Busan-Nah Trang, Incheon-Da Nang, and Incheon-Fukuoka ― and reopened the previously suspended four routes from Busan to Ulan Bator, Osaka, Cebu, and Kota Kinabalu of Malaysia.

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

The carrier resumed its Busan-Guam and Busan-Fukuoka routes in April and May, respectively, and opened its routes from Incheon to Osaka and Narita last month. It plans to reopen the Busan-Da Nang route this month while opening the routes from Incheon to Nha Trang and Kota Kinabalu.

Air Busan operated 25 international routes with 25 A321 chartered planes before the COVID-19 pandemic hit the airline industry two years ago.

Currently, it serves flights on a total of 19 international routes ― 11 from the Gimhae airport and eight from Incheon International Airport. (Yonhap)