Air travel is back, though buses to airport are lacking

The department terminal at Incheon International Airport bustles with passengers on Tuesday. [YONHAP]

Aviation has finally turned the corner as international passenger numbers grew almost 1,200 percent in January on-year.

Traffic analysis by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport and the Korea Civil Aviation Association showed international passenger numbers were up 1,187 percent in January compared to the previous year, reaching 4.61 million passengers.

That was 57.5 percent of the pre-pandemic volumes in January 2019.

The aviation industry attributed the increase to the “demand recovery of budget carriers and overseas demand to Japan and Southeast Asia.”

Korean low-cost carrier (LCC) Jin Air carried 429,706 international passengers in January this year. It was used by only 1,179 passengers in January 2022, jumping 36,346 percent on-year. Jeju Air, another Korean LCC, experienced an on-year surge of 16,052 percent over the same period.

Among the international air routes, Japan and Southeast Asia were the most popular destinations. The route most popular in January was Incheon-Bangkok, with passengers reaching 269,274. It was followed Incheon-Kansai (268,761 people), Incheon-Tokyo Narita (233,439 people), Incheon-Fukuoka (207,717 people) and Incheon-Singapore (159,764 people). Japan has allowed visa-free individual tourists from October.

More people interested in international travel meant a decrease in domestic travel.

The number of domestic air passengers in January this year stood at 2.64 million, down 15.8 percent from January the previous year. This is due to travel demand shifting to overseas travel, in addition to frequent domestic flight cancellations from heavy snow and strong winds that continued throughout the winter.

The shift in travel demand led to a passenger boom in international airports. Incheon International Airport had 3.8 million international passengers flying in and out in January. That was 974.5 percent up from the previous year. Jeju International Airport had 1.13 million passengers this year, a 7.7 percent decrease of passenger traffic on-year.

Confident from the air travel recovery backed up by the surge in international passengers, Incheon International Airport Corporation looks to finally make a turnaround this year after staying in the red for three consecutive years from 2020. Budget carriers such as T'way Air and Air Seoul, as well as duty free shops, are jumping into aggressive marketing.

Airport facilities haven’t been able to keep up with the influx of passengers.

Out of 224 restaurants and cafes at Incheon International Airport, only 75, or 33 percent of the total, were open as of Monday, according to the airport corporation.

“Convenience facilities operated by the corporation are all open, but some facilities that are operated by external businesses have been forced to close or reduce their operating hours due to manpower shortages,” an official at the corporation said.

The number of airport buses operating between Incheon International Airport and the city center was still found be less than half of the pre-pandemic level.

Receiving accumulated complaints from air passengers, the transport ministry, Incheon International Airport Corporation, Korea Airports Corporation and airport bus operator discussed ways to increase bus shuttles but failed to reach an agreement. The airport bus operator reportedly told it is a “difficult situation to immediately expand the number of buses to the pre-pandemic level as it is difficult to hire drivers and make profits.”

The reduced number of bus operations led to a parking shortage.

Incheon International Airport Corporation said the parking occupancy rate at the airport has reached up to 117 percent on weekends this year, mainly due to the decrease in airport shuttle buses coupled with more people using cars instead of public transport out of concerns on Covid-19.

BY LEE SOO-KI, KANG KI-HEON [seo.jieun1@joongang.co.kr]