South Korean Airlines are planning to expand flights to Chinese mainland this month onwards with the two countries agreeing to increase flights on their routes. Local airlines plan to initially increase the number of flights on routes to Beijing, Shanghai, Qingdao and Yanji from March 2023 end.
The move comes as South Korea lifted a PCR test requirement from March 1, 2023 for travelers from China after their arrival in South Korea.
Korean Air is planning to increase the number of its weekly flights on Chinese routes from the current 13 to 84 at the end of this month and 99 by May 2023. With the 99 flights the airline will reach 43% of its pre-pandemic capacity on the China route.
Asiana Airlines will increase the number of weekly flights to China from the existing 10 to 89, hitting 50% of its pre-pandemic levels, by April 2023 while Jeju Air will triple the number of weekly flights to China to 16 by the end of February 2023.
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 is planning to resume flights after it received an air operator certificate (AOC) from the transport ministry.
The two countries have rights to provide 608 flights per week. As per the transport ministry’s record they used to offer a combined 1,100 weekly flights prior to pandemic.
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.