Suspension of Passenger Transport on Incheon-China Ferry Due to Spread of Novel Coronavirus

Only Cargo Transported on 5 Routes for the Time Being

Due to the impact of the novel coronavirus, passenger transportation on the Incheon-China ferry has been suspended, leaving Incheon Port's 1st International Passenger Terminal quiet.
[Photo by Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Park Hyesook] Due to the spread of the novel coronavirus infection, passenger transportation on 10 ferry routes between Incheon and China has been suspended. The ferries are operating carrying only cargo without passengers, marking the first time in 30 years since the Incheon-China ferry route was first established in 1990.

According to the Incheon Port Authority and related industries on the 3rd, 10 international ferry routes between Incheon and China have completely suspended passenger transportation from the 1st due to the impact of the novel coronavirus situation.

Except for four routes undergoing regular ship inspections and one route where a container ship is operating as a substitute due to a ship fire last year, the remaining five routes plan to transport only container cargo without passengers for the time being.

Among the four China-origin ferries that arrived at Incheon Port on the 31st of last month, three ferries from Weihai (威海), Dandong (丹東), and Sidao (石島) entered the port carrying only some cargo without passengers. One ferry from Lianyungang (連雲港) arrived with three Korean passengers on board.

On the same day, among the three ferries departing for China, the ferries bound for Dandong and Sidao carried no passengers, while the ferry to Tianjin (天津) had only seven Chinese passengers on board.

Although passenger numbers sharply declined during the SARS outbreak in 2003, passenger transportation was never suspended as it is now. Ferry operators decided to suspend passenger transportation as the novel coronavirus spread throughout China, but they have not yet determined when passenger services will resume.

The number of ferry passengers between Incheon and China was 920,000 in 2016, but dropped sharply to 600,000 in 2017 due to the THAAD conflict, then recovered to 810,000 in 2018 and 1.03 million last year.

This year, with the opening of the new international passenger terminal at Incheon Port in June, the goal was to attract 1.15 million passengers, a 10.5% increase from last year, but achieving this has become uncertain due to the impact of the novel coronavirus.

An official from the Incheon Port Authority stated, "The suspension of passenger transportation appears to be an unavoidable measure to prevent the introduction of the novel coronavirus through the port," adding, "We understand that this was taken based on the ferry companies' own decisions or requests from local Chinese governments."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.