December 22, 2024

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Screenshot of Gimhae International Airport's website (Korea Airports Corporation)

Longer international flights are being added at Gimhae International Airport, starting with a new route to Bali, Indonesia, the Busan city government said Tuesday.

Starting Wednesday, flights to Bali operated by Air Busan will take off four times a week from the Busan airport.

This is the first regular flight longer than 5,000 kilometers to be scheduled from an airport outside Seoul and Incheon. Until now, the farthest destination served by Gimhae Airport was Singapore, around 4,600 kilometers from Busan.

Without a direct route, residents of Korea's second-largest city and its highly populated neighboring provinces had to travel to Incheon or transfer in other countries to reach Bali.

As a result of a bilateral agreement reached in January between South Korea and Indonesia, another new route will open between Jakarta and Busan operating seven times a week with service starting at a date yet to be scheduled.

In addition to Indonesia, the city is making efforts to expand routes to other regions.

Busan has acquired rights to open a route to Helsinki, Finland. In talks with Polish President Andrzej Duda during his state visit on Friday, Busan Mayor Park Heong-joon also discussed the introduction of flights from Busan to Warsaw once the war in Ukraine has come to an end.

The city of Busan recently filed a request with the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport to open a route to Istanbul, Turkey following an agreement the ministry reached in October with the Turkish authorities to open a new route to Istanbul from an airport which is not located in Seoul or Incheon.

By Lim Jae-seong (forestjs@heraldcorp.com)