Eastar Jet's Busan to Hong Kong Red-Eye Starts October 25

Eastar Jet (이스타항공) told Korean press this morning, September 14 KST, that it will fly Busan to Hong Kong every day from October 25, and the schedule is a red-eye in both directions: out of Gimhae at 21:30, into Hong Kong at 00:10, then back out of Hong Kong at 02:00 and on the ground in Busan at 07:05. If you've been pricing Busan–Hong Kong flights for a winter trip, this is the new option, and it's aimed squarely at people who'd rather burn a night than a day.

The details below come from the Korean coverage in Herald Economy, Financial News, Aju News, and Mobility Post, all published between 09:17 and 10:35 this morning. None of the four mention a fare or a sales date, so treat this as a schedule post, not a deal post.

Title card over a dusk photo of Busan's Gwangan Bridge and Nurimaru APEC House, reading "Eastar's Busan–Hong Kong Red-Eye Starts Oct 25" with the daily schedule PUS 21:30 to HKG 00:10 and HKG 02:00 to PUS 07:05

The schedule, with the time zone spelled out

Hong Kong is one hour behind Korea, so both legs are a little longer than the clock makes them look. Busan 21:30 to Hong Kong 00:10 is 3 hours 40 minutes in the air. Hong Kong 02:00 to Busan 07:05 is 4 hours 5 minutes. Mobility Post's version of the story adds that the aircraft is a Boeing 737 MAX 8 (보잉 B737 MAX 8). No lie-flat anything. You will be upright for four hours at 3 a.m.

The trade-off in one sentence: a 21:30 departure buys you a full last day in Busan, from a morning at Haeundae to a proper dinner, at the cost of arriving at Hong Kong's airport ten minutes after midnight with the trains about to stop.

That last part matters more than it sounds. The MTR's station service-hours lookup shows the Airport Express running its last train at 00:48, with first trains around 6 a.m. Land at 00:10, clear immigration, collect a bag, and 00:48 is tight but not impossible if you travel carry-on only and don't dawdle. Check a bag and you're most likely in a taxi or on a night bus. I haven't done that specific dash, so I can't promise the immigration queue at that hour; budget for the taxi and be pleasantly surprised.

Coming home, the 02:00 departure has the same problem in reverse: the last Airport Express of the night is a sensible time to be at check-in anyway for a 2 a.m. flight, so plan to be on that train or an earlier one.

Who this red-eye is really for

Read the Korean quote and Eastar tells you the answer itself. An Eastar Jet official (관계자), quoted without a name or title in the Korean articles, said the Incheon–Hong Kong route "confirmed Hong Kong locals' demand to visit Korea and a strong preference for night-time schedules" (야간 스케줄에 대한 높은 선호도), and that the new Busan route is meant to "extend that demand to Busan." The supporting numbers, from the same coverage: Incheon–Hong Kong, which Eastar started in March, has been running at roughly 90% average load factor (탑승률), and about 90% of the passengers on it are non-Koreans.

Quote card reading "Running Incheon–Hong Kong confirmed Hong Kong locals' demand to visit Korea and a strong preference for night-time schedules," attributed to an Eastar Jet official on September 14, 2026, translated from Korean

So the target customer is a Hong Konger who leaves after work on Friday, lands in Busan at 07:05 Saturday, and flies home on the Sunday-night departure without taking a day of leave. For that person the timing is close to perfect. Gimhae's light rail starts early, too: the Busan–Gimhae Light Rail's Airport station page lists a 05:33 first train toward Sasang on weekdays and a 00:09 last one, so a 07:05 arrival puts you on a train into the city well before nine.

If you're a Western traveler planning a Korea-plus-Hong-Kong trip, the calculation is different. You are not saving a day of leave; you're choosing between a night in a bed and a night in seat 23C. My honest verdict: the outbound (Busan 21:30) is worth it if you'd otherwise lose a Busan day to a midday flight. The inbound (Hong Kong 02:00) is fine if it's cheap, and not worth a detour if it isn't. Families with small kids, skip this one entirely and take a daytime flight; a 2 a.m. boarding with a toddler is a story you'll tell for years and not fondly.

What already flies Busan–Hong Kong, and who Eastar is copying

Eastar isn't opening a route nobody flies. When I checked Trip.com's Busan-to-Hong Kong schedule page on September 14, it listed about 19 flights a week in that direction: T'way's TW639 leaving Busan at 21:50 and landing at 00:15 daily, and HK Express's UO607 at 07:45 (five days a week) and UO675 at 14:20 (daily). The lowest T'way fare shown that day was ₩104,500 one way (about US$78 / £58 / HK$610 at the September 14 rate), which for a four-hour international flight is cheap by any home-country standard.

Look at those T'way times again. 21:50 out, 00:15 in. Eastar's new flight leaves twenty minutes earlier and lands five minutes earlier. This is a head-to-head on the exact same late slot, on a route where the other carrier already runs it daily. Purely my reading of the timetable, not anything Eastar has said, but when two LCCs park on the same 20-minute window, one of them usually ends up discounting. If you're flexible on dates, I'd hold off booking late-October and November Busan–Hong Kong flights until Eastar's fares appear and T'way responds.

Gimhae International Airport terminal building in Busan, with the Korean and English "김해 GIMHAE" sign above the apron — ⓒ한국관광공사 포토코리아-이범수 (Korea Tourism Organization, KOGL Type 1)

Eastar's bigger Busan push

The Hong Kong route is the first of three Busan additions in the same announcement. Per Herald Economy, Busan–Xiamen starts October 29 at three flights a week, and Busan–Hangzhou starts December 3 at four a week. The same article puts Eastar at 23 aircraft and roughly 50 routes, 15 of them out of Busan.

Schedule card listing Eastar Jet's new Busan routes this winter: Busan–Hong Kong daily from October 25, Busan–Xiamen three times weekly from October 29, and Busan–Hangzhou four times weekly from December 3

That fits the pattern I wrote about last week, when the government put 93.5 billion won behind routing foreign visitors through regional airports instead of Incheon. Gimhae was the only one of the five airports in that plan that already works as a real international gateway, and a daily Hong Kong red-eye plus two China routes in six weeks is what "works" looks like in practice.

A quieter point from the Korean coverage: the 90% foreign-passenger figure on Incheon–Hong Kong means Eastar is not really selling this to Koreans, and the articles read that way, down to the phrase about "regional inflow of foreign tourists" (외국인 관광객의 지역 유입). If you're a Hong Kong reader, you're the customer. If you're reading this from London or Sydney, you're a welcome bystander who gets a cheap late flight out of the deal.

Aerial view of Haeundae Beach in Busan on a clear summer day, with the beach umbrellas, surf, and the high-rise skyline behind — ⓒ한국관광공사 포토코리아-부산관광공사 (Korea Tourism Organization, KOGL Type 1)

Before you book

Check the fare pages, not the press release. Eastar's site is eastarjet.com, and the route should appear there once sales open. Fares will be one-way, LCC-style, with checked bags extra, so compare the total against T'way's 21:50 with a bag included, not the headline number.

Land at 00:10 in Hong Kong with only a backpack and you have a real shot at the 00:48 Airport Express. With a checked bag, assume a taxi and you won't be disappointed.

One thing I'd genuinely like to know from anyone in Hong Kong who has flown the T'way 21:50: does the 00:15 arrival make the last train, or is it a taxi every time? Leave a comment and I'll update the post with real answers.

Sources: Herald Economy (Korean), Financial News (Korean), Aju News (Korean), Mobility Post (Korean), Busan–Gimhae Light Rail Airport station, MTR service-hours lookup, Trip.com Busan–Hong Kong schedule (Korean).

This is a running news series, not a one-off post — new stories go up twice a day, roughly 7am and 7pm Korea time.

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