South Korean low-cost carrier Jeju Air was facing a wave of trip cancellations after a fatal crash in which 179 people were killed, the company told Agence France-Presse (AFP) on Monday.
In Sunday's accident at Muan, a Jeju Air Boeing 737-800 carrying 181 people from Thailand to South Korea made a mayday call and belly-landed before crashing into a barrier and bursting into flames.
Everyone on board was killed, save two flight attendants pulled from the wreckage.
"From midnight the previous day (Sunday) to 1 p.m. today (4 p.m. GMT Monday), the number of canceled flight tickets totaled approximately 68,000," a Jeju Air official told AFP.
Domestic flights accounted for around 33,000 cancellations, while international flight cancellations stood at around 34,000, the company said.
An inflow of new bookings, however, was still maintained, the company added.
"Given the current situation, the cancellation rate is slightly higher than usual. However, the inflow of new bookings remains steady," Song Kyung-hoon, head of the management support office at Jeju Air, told a news conference.
Major travel agencies were also reporting mass cancellations due to crash-related travel anxiety.
"We got at least 400 cancellations in the first hour of our opening," a travel agency, one of the country's biggest, told AFP.
"Many also are asking if their aircraft is the Boeing 737-800, and if so, they want to cancel," they said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
A Jeju Air flight from Seoul on Monday was forced to return after encountering a landing gear problem, Yonhap reported – the aircraft being the same Boeing 737-800 involved in the latest incident.
Local media reported that 21 passengers chose not to board an alternate flight after the aircraft landed, citing concerns over safety and other reasons.
Jeju Air shares fell as much as 15% on Monday.
The shares traded down 8.5% as of 3:12 a.m. GMT after falling as much as 15.7% earlier in the session to 6,920 won, the lowest since they were listed in 2015. The share slide on Monday wiped out as much as 95.7 billion won ($65.2 million) in market capitalization.
Shares of AK Holdings, the holding company of Jeju Air, fell as much as 12% and hit their lowest in 16 years.
The crash on Sunday at Muan International Airport was the first fatal flight for Jeju Air, a low-cost airline founded in 2005 and the country's third-largest carrier by passenger numbers.
The shares of multiple domestic tour agencies were also down.
"It will take time to assess the cause of the accident, but consumer sentiment will inevitably be hurt, as credibility is important for budget carriers whose seats and services are not much different from each other," said Yang Seung-yoon, an analyst at Eugene Investment Securities.
"In terms of overall travel demand, there might be some cancellations in the short term, but it is unlikely to weaken structurally."
Travel agencies shut down their ads and promotional events, with tour package cancellations doubling and bookings halving for one operator, the Yonhap news agency reported.
Many victims of the plane crash, the worst in the country's history, appeared to be returning from vacation for the holiday season, officials said.
Travel agency stocks also weakened, with Hanatour Service down as much as 7% and Very Good Tour down as much as 11%.
