Korean Air to expand China routes to nearly half of pre-pandemic levels

[Photo provided by Korean Air]

Korean Air Lines Co., the largest full-service carrier in South Korea, announced plans to gradually expand its routes to China and recover flights to up to 43 percent of pre-pandemic levels.

Korean Air will increase the number of round-trip flights from Korea to mainland China to 99 flights per week by June, which is a 43 percent recovery compared with its 2019 operations.

Korean Air will resume flights from Incheon to Beijing four times a week from March 19 and seven times a week from March 26. There will be 9 flights per week from May 1. The carrier will also serve seven flights per week for the Gimpo-Beijing route from March 26.

It also plans to gradually resume operations on routes such as Incheon-Xian, Incheon-Shenzhen, Incheon-Yanji, Incheon-Xiamen, and Gimpo-Shanghai. The airline will also increase the number of flights on the Incheon-Shanghai, Incheon-Guangzhou, Incheon-Qingdao, Incheon-Shenyang, Incheon-Dalian, and Incheon-Nanjing routes.

The country’s budget carrier Jin Air Co. will resume its Jeju-Xian and Jeju-Shanghai flights following a termination of the consolidation of inbound flights from China at Incheon International Airport.

Jin Air will operate one flight per week for the Xian route from March 16 and two flights per week from March 26. It will fly seven times a week from Jeju Island to Shanghai from March 26.

Asiana Airlines Inc. also plans to expand its China routes by April. It is hoping to increase its existing ten flights per week to 89 flights per week to recover to about 50 percent of its pre-pandemic operations.

Earlier, the Korean and Chinese governments agreed to expand the Korea-China routes to pre-pandemic levels. With the recent lifting of visa restrictions and mandatory PCR testing by the Korean government and similar measures by the Chinese government, outbound travel demand on Korea-China routes is expected to increase sharply.