Carriers say phones ringing off the hook for temporary flights

Airline companies have begun accepting reservations online and by phone for seats on temporary flights, mainly for people who plan to visit their hometowns during the annual Chuseok, or harvest festival, holiday later this month.

Asiana Airlines started accepting reservations for 14,200 seats on temporarily scheduled domestic flights on Monday, while Korean Air has also made available 16,829 seats for the upcoming holiday and began taking reservations yesterday.

Asiana said it has deployed additional personnel to field the flood of calls and improved its system to prepare for overloaded Internet servers due to the expected rush.

This year’s Chuseok will be celebrated from Sept. 29 to Oct. 1. The temporary flights organized by the two airlines will run for seven days from Sept. 28 to Oct. 4.