Incheon Airport Resumes International Flights... "Airline Industry Performance Improvement Accelerates"

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Hyunseok Yoo] As the government plans to normalize international flights at Incheon International Airport starting from the 8th, the performance improvement of airlines is also expected to accelerate.

According to the aviation industry on the 5th, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport (MOLIT) announced on the 3rd at the Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasures Headquarters meeting that it decided to promote the "early normalization of international flights."

MOLIT will lift the hourly aircraft arrival restrictions (slot restrictions) and curfew at Incheon Airport, which have been in place since April 2020, after 2 years and 2 months. The number of hourly aircraft arrivals at Incheon Airport was reduced to the 20s following the COVID-19 outbreak. However, starting from the 8th, it will increase to 40, the pre-COVID-19 level. The curfew from 8 p.m. to 5 a.m. the next day will also be removed, allowing Incheon Airport to operate 24 hours a day.

The scale of international flight increases is also expected to grow. MOLIT initially planned to gradually increase international flights by 100 to 300 flights per week each month, aiming to restore international flight operations to 50% of pre-COVID-19 levels within the year.

However, considering the recent sharp rise in air travel demand and the stabilization of COVID-19 domestically and internationally, the flight scale will be expanded. Specifically, the increase in international flights this month will be 230 flights per week, 130 flights more than originally planned. Additionally, from the 8th, flights will be supplied according to demand without any restrictions on the scale of increases.

As a result, the speed of performance improvement for airlines is also expected to accelerate. Yeonseung Jung, a researcher at NH Investment & Securities, explained, "Across domestic airlines, as international flight demand recovery gains momentum, cash flow is improving due to increased transportation volume and advance payments (reservations). For major airlines, despite a decline in cargo freight rates, the improvement in passenger demand is expected to sustain favorable performance trends. For low-cost carriers, an increase in transportation volume could enable a turnaround to profitability in the second half of the year."

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