Deal paves way for more flights on popular routes

This image is unrelated to the article. [Getty Images Bank]
This image is unrelated to the article. [Getty Images Bank]

South Korea's government has agreed to expand air traffic rights on high-demand routes between the two countries — including services to Shanghai and Guangzhou — and will also increase flights connecting Chinese cities to regional airports.

The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport announced Monday that South Korea and China agreed during bilateral aviation talks held in Seoul over two days beginning May 27 to increase traffic rights by 70 round trips per week. The deal is expected to give travelers more flight options between the two countries.

Under the agreement, passenger services will increase by 54 weekly round trips — from 608 to 664 — while cargo flights will rise by 14, from 54 to 68 per week.

The expansion marks the first increase in bilateral traffic rights since 2019 and is aimed at laying the groundwork for additional international routes in line with growing people-to-people and trade exchanges between the two countries.

Traffic rights on routes such as Incheon-Shanghai and Incheon-Guangzhou — where demand has long been high but both sides had exhausted their existing allocations, making additional flights impossible — will be expanded, giving consumers more choices.

Meanwhile, traffic rights reserved exclusively for regional airports in Busan, Cheongju and other cities serving 10 major Chinese destinations — including Guangzhou, Chongqing and Shenzhen — will increase by 14 weekly round trips. The ministry said the move is expected to improve travel convenience for regional residents, revitalize local airports and draw more foreign tourists to areas outside the capital.

On the cargo side, traffic rights linking South Korean airports with four major Chinese cargo hubs — Tianjin, Zhengzhou, Ezhou and Hefei — will increase by 14 weekly round trips to meet rising freight demand between the two countries.

Given the strong interest Korean carriers showed in Chinese traffic rights during the regular allocation round conducted in late April, the ministry plans to distribute the newly secured rights as quickly as possible within the second half of the year, based on each airline's readiness to launch services, to support prompt additional flight increases.

Lee So-young, the ministry's aviation policy director, called the outcome "very encouraging," saying it achieved a timely expansion of traffic rights through active negotiations at a time when exchanges between the two countries are growing. "This agreement is expected to boost Chinese tourist visits to Korea, improve convenience for Korean travelers and import-export businesses, and help Korean airlines expand more actively into the Chinese market — all of which will contribute to economic vitality," she said.

Meanwhile, the number of passengers traveling between South Korea and China in the first quarter reached approximately 4.39 million, surpassing the pre-pandemic peak of 4.14 million.


hss@heraldcorp.com