
Passengers wait to board a aircraft at Gimpo Worldwide Airport on this photograph taken on Sept. 10, 2024. Newsis
Korea’s air passenger visitors jumped sharply from a yr earlier in 2024, almost reaching the pre-pandemic stage on elevated abroad journey, information confirmed Sunday.
The variety of airline passengers at Korean airports got here to greater than 120 million, up 19.5 p.c from about 100.5 million tallied in 2023, in response to the information from the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport.
The quantity represents 97.3 p.c of the document 123.36 million posted in 2019. The quantity had dipped to 29.5 p.c of the document determine in 2020 amid the COVID-19 pandemic, earlier than recovering to 81.5 p.c of the 2019 tally in 2023.
The sharp improve final yr was largely attributed to an increase within the variety of worldwide passengers to and from Korea, which jumped 30.2 p.c on-year to some 88.9 million, whereas home passengers gained 3.3 p.c to 31.13 million over the cited interval, the information confirmed.
By vacation spot, passengers to and from Japan spiked 29.7 p.c on-year to over 25 million, apparently helped by the weak Japanese foreign money.
Air passengers to and from China greater than doubled to 13.77 million from 6.84 million in 2023, partly helped by Beijing’s shock announcement in November to waive visa necessities for guests from Korea, permitting Korean guests to remain in China for as much as 15 days with out a visa.
Air passenger visitors to and from different Asian international locations additionally jumped 22.7 p.c on-year to 34.98 million, with passengers to and from america including 16.1 p.c to six.51 million, in response to the information.
By airport, passengers at Incheon Worldwide Airport, Seoul’s most important gateway, surged 26.8 p.c on-year to over 70 million final yr, whereas these utilizing the airport within the southern resort island of Jeju greater than doubled to 2.43 million. (Yonhap)