Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport to Achieve 90% Recovery of International Flights by September This Year

Incheon-Prague and Zurich Flights Resume
Temporary Increase in Domestic Flights to Jeju in April

The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport announced on the 2nd that it will promote increasing international flights, support for regional airports, and the resumption of transit tourism to restore the number of international flights to 90% of pre-COVID-19 levels by September.

Scheduled international flights are planned to increase to 4,075 weekly flights across 204 routes, expected to recover to 90% of pre-COVID-19 levels.

Arrival hall of Incheon International Airport Terminal 1. Photo by Mun Ho-nam munonam@

In particular, priority support will be given to normalizing routes to Japan and China, which accounted for half of all international flights before COVID-19. Scheduled flights on Japanese routes are expected to recover to 92%, and Chinese routes to 87% of pre-COVID-19 levels by September this year.

Additionally, flights that were suspended after COVID-19, including ▲Incheon-Prague ▲Incheon-Zurich ▲Incheon-Madrid ▲ Gimhae-Kaohsiung, will resume, and new routes Incheon-Newark and Gimpo-Beijing (Daxing) will be launched.

Along with this, major routes from Incheon Airport to Japan and China such as ▲Narita (weekly 144 → 168 flights) ▲Osaka (weekly 143 → 168 flights) ▲Shanghai (weekly 2 → 88 flights) ▲Qingdao (weekly 12.5 → 137 flights) will be increased. Also, routes departing from regional airports such as Gimhae-Beijing, Daegu-Shanghai, Cheongju-Osaka, and Muan-Shanghai will resume operations.

With the increase in international flights, Northeast Asia routes are expected to recover to 89%, Southeast Asia routes to 91% (Vietnam 97%, Philippines 94%, Thailand 84%), Americas routes to 92% (USA 92%, Canada 103%), and European routes to 97% (Germany 119%, France 95%, UK 67%) compared to pre-COVID-19 levels.

Furthermore, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport will expand support benefits not only for existing scheduled flights at regional airports but also for charter flights. In preparation for the spring travel season, this month, 113 additional weekly flights will be temporarily added on five high-demand routes including Jeju-Gimpo, Gimhae, Daegu, Cheongju, and Gimpo-Gimhae, significantly increasing seat supply. Jeju Airport slots will also be allocated to regional routes to ensure stable operation of scheduled flights to Jeju from all regional airports.

The Korea Airports Corporation will waive landing fees for up to 16 flights per airline for charter flights arriving at five international airports?Gimhae, Daegu, Muan, Yangyang, and Cheongju?where the proportion of foreign passengers exceeds 50%.

Kim Young-guk, Director of Aviation Policy at the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, stated, "We will continue to promote various measures with local governments to expand international flights, which can lead to increased foreign arrivals and stimulate domestic demand, and we will also make ongoing efforts to enhance convenience for local residents by expanding regional international routes."

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