November 30, 2024

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Incheon Airport (Yonhap)

The number of overseas travelers spiked to over 3.93 million in the first half of this year, surging 233.2 percent on-year, fueled by the lifting of aviation restrictions and antivirus regulations, according to Incheon Airport on Thursday.

“The increase was most noticeable in May and June when the number of overseas travelers increased 44.6 percent and 34.4 percent on-month, respectively. Most popular destinations were the US, Southeast Asia and Europe,” said Kim Chang-kyu, public relations executive director of Incheon International Airport Corp.

The Transport Ministry fully lifted aviation restrictions -- including a curfew on flights landing at Incheon Airport -- as of June 8, more than two years after the enforcement of the antivirus regulations.

Since June 15, all inbound air travelers have been exempt from quarantine regardless of their vaccination status, as part of the government’s post-omicron response plan announced in April.

Incheon Airport expects the number of overseas travelers to hit 24 million this year -- 35 percent of the related pre-pandemic figure.

The airport is also preparing to normalize its operations to up to 70 percent of the pre-pandemic level by the summer peak season, which is July 22 to Aug. 10.

That involves operating up to six departure gates, 490 check-in counters and eight arrival gates for over 60,000 international travelers a day.

Incheon Airport forecasts a daily average of 85,621 travelers during that period, which is a hike of 747 percent on-year.

To respond to increasing travelers at the airport, Incheon Airport will also restore airport limousine bus operations to up to 60 percent of pre-pandemic levels.

“But travel restrictions to China and Japan could hold back travelers and delay travel demand restoration back to the pre-pandemic level, since back in 2019, travels to China accounted for 19.1 percent of the total number of overseas travelers and to Japan 16.7 percent,” explained Kim.

Flights to China are currently heavily restricted due to Beijing’s rigorous quarantine measures. Despite the reopening of air routes between Korea and Japan, Japan does not offer visa-free entry to Koreans, and it has not reopened to tourism except for that organized by an agency.

By Hong Yoo (yoohong@heraldcorp.com)