36.36 Million Air Passengers Last Year... 70% Decrease Compared to Pre-COVID Levels

International Passengers Down 77.5% vs 2020, Domestic Passengers Up 31.7%, Air Cargo Up 11.4%
International Passengers Down 96.4% vs 2019, Domestic Passengers Up 0.5%, Air Cargo Down 15.2%

Last year, the total number of air passengers was 36.36 million, which is more than a 70% decrease compared to two years ago before COVID-19. Compared to the previous year, it decreased by 7.7%.

According to the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport on the 3rd, international passengers last year recorded 3.21 million, a 77.5% decrease from the previous year, while domestic passengers recorded 33.15 million, a 31.7% increase from the previous year. Compared to 2019, two years ago, international passengers decreased by 96.4%, while domestic passengers increased by 0.5%.

The total number of air passengers increased from 109.36 million in 2017 to 117.53 million in 2018 and 123.37 million in 2019, but sharply dropped to 39.4 million in 2020 when COVID-19 became widespread, and showed a decreasing trend to 36.36 million last year.

In particular, international passengers shrank from 90.39 million in 2019 to 14.24 million in 2020 and 3.21 million last year. This is a 77.5% decrease from the previous year due to the spread of COVID-19 variants such as Delta and Omicron. By region, all areas except the Middle East and others (4.7%) decreased compared to the previous year: Japan (-93.3%), China (-81.1%), and Asia (-88.3%).

Last year, 70.2% of international passengers were transported to the top 10 countries. The first place was the United States (890,000 passengers), recording a 27.7% share, which is a 22.4 percentage point increase compared to 2019, followed by China (420,000 passengers) and Japan (150,000 passengers).

On the other hand, domestic passengers decreased from 32.98 million in 2019 to 25.16 million in 2020, then surged by about 10 million to 33.15 million last year, marking an all-time high. This was due to increased domestic travel demand replacing overseas travel, which sharply declined due to the COVID-19 impact.

Domestic passengers increased compared to the previous year at most airports except Incheon (-98.2%). Compared to 2019 before the pandemic spread, Gimpo (7.0%), Gimhae (21.1%), and Yeosu (74.7%) increased, but Jeju (-9.8%), Daegu (-2.3%), and Incheon (-99.7%) decreased. Also, among domestic passengers, the volume transported by major airlines increased by 12.1% from the previous year to 9.3 million (28% share), and low-cost carriers increased by 41.3% to 23.85 million (72% share).

Due to strong exports and a shift to maritime logistics, total air cargo increased by 11.4% from the previous year (a 15.2% decrease compared to 2019) to 3.62 million tons, and air cargo excluding baggage increased by 17.0% from the previous year (a 16.3% increase compared to 2019) to 3.4 million tons.

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