hankyoreh

A view inside Air Seoul’s nonstop passenger plane (Airport pool photo)

International air traffic to and from Korea is expected to finally resume in earnest in May, after being hit hard for over two years as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.

At a meeting held on March 31, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport (MOLIT) reached an agreement with health authorities to promote a “phase-by-phase” recovery plan to restore the scale of international flights to 50% of their 2019 level by the end of this year.

The meeting took place in the form of an inter-ministerial consultative body presided over by the Central Disaster Management Headquarters, attended by representatives from the Office for Government Policy Coordination; MOLIT; the Central Disease Control Headquarters; and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

MOLIT plans to normalize the international aviation network, which took a big hit as a result of COVID-19-related policies. The plan consists of three stages.

It plans to comprehensively consider the local disease control situation, whether quarantine is exempted at the time of entry, and the openness of aviation policies in other countries to restore flight networks anticipated around routes that are expected to recover rapidly.

The ministry plans to implement the first phase of the plan from May to June. Since the number of international flights leaving South Korea currently is only 8.9% of the pre-pandemic figure, the plan is to increase the number of international flights by 100 per week starting this May. This means that the current 420 international flights per week will rise to 520 per week in May, then 620 per week in June.

The second phase of the plan will start in July and last until COVID-19 has become endemic. MOLIT and other related agencies have set the goal to restore the number of international flights to 50% of the 2019 level by the end of this year. The goal was set considering the increasing demand for more international flights by both passengers and airlines.

The final stage of the plan will begin once the endemic period has begun. The government predicts that COVID-19 will shift into an endemic in October, and international flights are expected to recover to 40% of their 2019 level (1,820 flights a week) that month. The number is expected to reach 51% (2,420 flights a week) by November.

By Choi Jong-hoon, staff reporter

Please direct questions or comments to [english@hani.co.kr]