South Korean Budget Airlines to Cut Flight Hours After Crash

South Korea’s government has ordered budget airlines to reduce flight hours and hire more maintenance workers as it tightens safety measures after last month’s deadly Jeju Air Co. crash.

At a meeting Thursday, the transport ministry pushed the chief executive officers of nine local low-cost carriers to improve safety standards. In a statement after the meeting, the ministry said “no company can survive if it focuses on cost-cutting.” Authorities will “intensively monitor” flight hours, the size of maintenance workforces and procedures, and tighten certification on buying new aircraft and operating new routes, it said.