Nearly 850,000 Passengers Use Airports Nationwide During Lunar New Year Holiday... Concerns Over Social Distancing

Two days before the nation's biggest holiday, the Lunar New Year holiday, on the 9th, information about flights to Jeju is displayed at the domestic terminal of Gimpo Airport in Gangseo-gu, Seoul. Photo by Moon Honam munonam@

[Asia Economy Reporter Dongwoo Lee] During the Lunar New Year holiday period, nearly 850,000 people are expected to flock to domestic airports excluding Incheon International Airport.

According to the aviation industry on the 12th, it is estimated that about 840,000 passengers will use 14 airports nationwide, including Gimpo and Jeju, over the five days from the 10th to the 14th, which is the Lunar New Year holiday period this year. Compared to last year's Lunar New Year holiday (January 23?27) when about 930,000 passengers used the airports, this is about a 10% decrease.

The number of flights operating at the 14 airports during this period is expected to be 6,531. Gimpo Airport is projected to handle 2,139 flights and 280,000 passengers based on departures and arrivals during the holiday. The average daily expected number of passengers is about 55,000. During the same period, the number of flights taking off and landing at Gimpo Airport is expected to reach 2,140.

Incheon International Airport, which mainly handles international flights, is expected to see 32,147 passengers over the five days. Compared to last year when the COVID-19 situation was not severe, it is predicted that the number of passengers will decrease by more than 96%. The expected number of passengers by date is highest on the 10th with 7,481 passengers and on the Lunar New Year day, the 12th, with 7,160 passengers.

Although the government has requested refraining from visiting hometowns during the Lunar New Year holiday period, some are concerned that the number of new COVID-19 cases may increase during this time.

Earlier, the government decided to maintain social distancing measures (2.5 in the metropolitan area, 2.0 in non-metropolitan areas) and the policy of 'prohibiting private gatherings of five or more people' during the Lunar New Year holiday to prevent the spread of COVID-19.

The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, together with the Korea Transport Institute, conducted a travel behavior survey for this year's Lunar New Year holiday and predicted a total of 21.92 million people, with an average of 4.38 million people traveling daily. This represents a 32.6% decrease compared to the 32.51 million people who traveled during last year's Lunar New Year holiday.

The most used mode of transportation was passenger cars at 93.5%, followed by buses (3.4%), railways (2.3%), airplanes (0.6%), and passenger ships (0.2%).

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