Air Busan Co. said Tuesday it will resume flights to the Chinese city of Ningbo next month to meet travel demand from businessmen.

The budget carrier unit of Asiana Airlines Inc. will begin offering one flight per week on Dec. 6 on the Incheon-Ningbo route after suspending the route for 10 months due to the coronavirus impact on the airline industry, the company said in a statement.

Instead, the carrier plans to suspend the Incheon-Shenzhen route beginning Nov. 27, it said, 

In July, the company resumed the Incheon-Shenzhen route, but it suspended other Chinese routes to Ningbo, Chengdu, Qingdao, Yanji, Zhangjiajie, Xian, Hainan and Haikou.   

Hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic, Air Busan's net losses widened to 135.87 billion won ($122 million) in the January-September period from 63.55 billion won a year earlier.

It plans to raise 89 billion won in a rights offering in December to secure operating capital amid a prolonged virus crisis.

Asiana Airlines Inc., which holds a controlling 44 percent stake in the low-cost carrier, will inject 30 billion won into the rights issue. (Yonhap)