Korean Air to Continue Expanding International Flights in July...

On the 26th, when KDB Industrial Bank and Korea Eximbank finalized the plan to support Korean Air with 1.2 trillion won, Korean Air passenger planes were parked at the Gimpo Airport apron in Gangseo-gu, Seoul. Photo by Jinhyung Kang aymsdream@

[Asia Economy Reporter Yu Je-hoon] Korean Air plans to increase flights to the Americas and Europe in July following June, and to resume operations to China and Japan. According to the aviation industry on the 8th, Korean Air recently announced its July flight schedule, planning to resume flights on routes such as Dallas, USA and Vienna, Austria. These routes have been suspended since March.

Additionally, the airline is reviewing the resumption of flights to China and Japan, which had been planned but failed earlier this month. Representative routes include four China routes: Incheon~Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Qingdao, and two Japan routes: Gimpo~Haneda (Tokyo), Incheon~Osaka.

Moreover, some routes to the Americas, Europe, and Southeast Asia will see increased frequency. The Incheon~Los Angeles (LA) route will increase from 7 to 11 flights per week, Incheon~San Francisco from 5 to 7 flights per week, Incheon~Paris and London will operate 5 times weekly, and Incheon~Amsterdam will increase to 6 times weekly.

Korean Air is expanding international flights as the spread of COVID-19 in major countries has eased, allowing economic activities to resume in earnest. This month, as various national airlines have expanded international flights, the daily number of passengers at Incheon International Airport, which had once dropped to around 3,000, has recently recovered to over 10,000.

However, some countries such as China and Japan have not lifted strengthened entry restrictions to prevent the spread of COVID-19, making it uncertain whether these plans will materialize. Korean Air had aimed to resume six routes after the recent Chinese National People's Congress (Lianghui) at the end of last month, expecting Chinese aviation authorities to lift the 'one airline, one route' regulation, but this ultimately failed. Although some restrictions on foreign airlines were later eased, the 'one airline, one route' rule remains, so currently only the Incheon~Shenyang route is in operation.

Japanese authorities have also not relaxed control measures, making it unlikely that flights such as Gimpo~Haneda will resume as planned. A Gimpo Airport official stated, "At present, unless there is an agreement between the two governments, flights to Tokyo can only operate to Narita Airport," adding, "Other airlines are also considering resuming flights in their plans, but it is difficult for these to become a reality."

The '14-day mandatory quarantine' maintained by each country is a factor hindering the resumption of international flights. An industry official said, "There are cases where quarantine measures are exempted or reduced under specific conditions such as the fast-track system for business travelers, but no international agreement regarding quarantine has been reached yet."

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