Passengers at Kimpo International Airport Increasing

The number of passengers departing from Korea through Kimpo International Airport has recovered to the level before the exchange crisis in November 1997.
The Korea Airports Authority(KAA) announced on May 27 that 483,000 passengers left Korea through Kimpo International Airport from May 1 to 24. This figure is a 19 percent increase over last year's 407,000 in the same period and 99 percent of the level recorded before the exchange crisis.
Notably, Kimpo Airport's second international terminal, where Korean airlines fly in and out of, had 4 percent more passengers than before the economic crisis during the month of April.
As a result of increased traffic, the rate of on-time departures at the second international terminal is only about 65 percent on weekdays and below 60 percent during the weekend.
The jump in passengers is mainly due to the increase of foreign tourists, which rose by 20 percent over last year, thanks to the low exchange rate and an active publicity campaign by the Korean government.
However, the number of Korean passengers is only about 86 percent of the level achieved in 1997.

Jooan Kang : jooan@joongang.co.kr