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| This file photo shows a Korean Air passenger jet taking off from Incheon International Airport, west of Seoul, Feb. 20. Yonhap |
Korean airlines said Monday they will expand flights to China from later this month, as the two countries recently agreed to increase flights on their routes to pre-pandemic levels.
Seoul and Beijing have the right to provide 608 flights a week on routes to each other's country, and they used to offer a combined 1,100 weekly flights before the COVID-19 pandemic hit the airline industry three years ago, according to the transport ministry.
Korean carriers used to offer 450 to 470 flights a week on their routes to China before the pandemic. The flights to China accounted for one-fourth of their international flights.
Local airlines plan to initially increase the number of flights on routes to Beijing, Shanghai, Qingdao and Yanji this month.
Korean Air, the country's biggest carrier, said it will increase the number of its weekly flights on Chinese routes from the current 13 to 84 at the end of this month and 99 at end-May.
The 99 weekly flights reach 43 percent of the pre-pandemic levels offered by the national flag carrier.
Asiana Airlines, the country's second-biggest carrier, plans to increase the number of weekly flights to China from the existing 10 to 89, 50 percent of the pre-pandemic levels, by April.
Jeju Air, the country's leading budget carrier, said it aims to triple the number of weekly flights to China to 16 by the end of this month.
Other low-cost carriers(LCCs) have already started to increase flights to China or are planning to resume their halted routes to the neighboring country.
Eastar Jet plans to resume flights later this month after it received an air operator certificate (AOC) from the transport ministry last month.
Eastar, a China-focused carrier, has suspended most of its flights on domestic and international routes since March 2020 due to the pandemic, and its AOC became ineffective in May that year.
The move comes as Korea lifted a PCR test requirement on March 1 for travelers from China after their arrival here and the pre-arrival test requirement on March 10.
In February, Korea resumed issuing short-term visas for Chinese visitors, and China also restarted the issuance of short-term visas for Koreans.
Korea has two full-service carriers ― Korean Air and Asiana Airlines ― and 10 LCCs ― Jeju Air, Jin Air, Air Busan, T'way Air, Air Seoul, Eastar Jet, Fly Gangwon, Air Premia, Aero K Airlines and Air Incheon.
Air Incheon is a cargo-focused carrier, and the nine other low-cost ones are passenger carriers. (Yonhap)
