Asiana ramps up flights to Japan and elsewhere

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Asiana ramps up flights to Japan and elsewhere

Published: 22 Feb. 2023, 19:04

Asiana Airlines' A321NEO [YONHAP]

Asiana Airlines will add 40 more weekly international flights from March mostly on routes to Japan, the company announced Wednesday.

Starting from March 4, Asiana will bump up its Incheon-Narita flights to 21 a week, up from the current 14 flights a week.

There will also be 21 Incheon-Osaka and Gimpo-Haneda flights per week, compared to the current 14, starting from March 10.

Flights leaving from Incheon to Okinawa will depart daily from March 15. There are currently only four such flights a week.

From April, the carrier will offer daily flights on the Incheon-Haneda route after a nearly three-year hiatus due to Covid-19.

Flights between Incheon and Sendai, also halted during the pandemic, will operate three times weekly.

Reasoning that nearly 90 percent of the flights from Gimpo to Osaka were full in January, Asiana Airlines said it will use a larger 290-seat Airbus A330 for its service connecting the two cities. The route is currently serviced by the 188-seat A321N.

The country’s second-largest carrier is also set to increase service to Southeast Asia.

Flights from Incheon to Vietnam’s Danang will be increased to seven from four a week from March 10, and to India’s New Delhi to three from twice a week from March 26.

Service to Cebu in the Philippines, which was halted during Covid-19, will be restarted, operating four days a week starting March 15.

Flights bound to Taipei, a popular tourist destination with Koreans, will depart twice a day.

Asiana Airlines is ramping up service to Europe as well.

Its London service will increase from six days a week to daily; Rome from two days a week to four; Paris from five days a week to six; and Barcelona from two days a week to three.

Moving into May, Asiana Airlines will resume overnight flights to New York, which were stopped after March 2020 amid the pandemic.

Overall, flights from Incheon to New York will increase from seven flights a week to 10.

“We are planning to gradually return international flight operations to normal by the peak summer season,” Asiana Airlines wrote.

BY SEO JI-EUN [seo.jieun1@joongang.co.kr]