Korea-China air travel takes off as group tourists return

Travelers entering from Incheon International Airport Terminal 1 [YONHAP]

Air travel between Korea and China exceeded 900,000 passengers in August, the highest since February 2020, following China's recent decision to reopen group tourism.

Despite the rise in passenger numbers, Korean domestic carriers have taken a more cautious approach when restoring routes between the two countries in contrast to Chinese airlines' proactive push to expand flights.

Air travel between Korea and China in August increased by 2,032 percent increase over a year, with 931,272 passengers compared to the 43,675 passengers during the same month last year.

The number of passengers traveling between the two nations has gradually risen since China lifted its "zero-Covid" policy in January. Passenger counts remained in the 100,000 range until March, but then numbers reached over 340,000 in April, 470,000 in May and 630,000 in June.

Since Aug. 10, China allowed group tourism by Chinese nationals to Korea for the first time in over six years since the deployment of the Thaad missile defense system. This led to an increase of nearly 110,000 passengers within just one month, rising from 818,831 in July to nearly one million. Yet August's figure still falls short of the level seen in the same month in 2019, which was 1,784,640 passengers.

Expectations are high that the number of Chinese tourists will increase further with the upcoming Chinese National Day holiday from Sept. 29 to Oct. 6. However, Korean domestic airlines have been more cautious when it comes to expanding routes to China.

Korean Air Lines, the country's largest full-service carrier, will increase the Jeju-Beijing flights by three additional irregular flights starting on Sept. 20. It also plans to resume Wuhan and Weihai routes at the end of September, operating them three and four times a week, respectively, but the decision was made well before the resumption of Chinese group travel to Korea.

Asiana Airlines, another full-service carrier, will add three more weekly fights on the Incheon-Guangzhou and Incheon-Qingdao routes from Sept. 29 and Oct. 1 each. However, they plan to suspend the Gimpo-Beijing, Incheon-Xi'an and Incheon-Shenzhen routes by the end of October, as planned.

In addition, Korea's low-cost carriers (LCCs) are not making significant changes to their operations to China.

Airlines like Jeju Air and T'way Air have recently expanded their China routes, but they have not confirmed any temporary increases for the Chinese National Day holiday.

Jin Air, while maintaining its seven weekly flights on the Jeju-Shanghai route, has increased the aircraft size from the previous B737-800 to the larger B777-200ER, expanding the capacity from 189 to 393 seats.

Such passive actions contrast with Chinese airlines that are aggressively expanding flights to Korea.

For instance, Juneyao Airlines resumed seven weekly flights on the Jeju-Nanjing route from Sept. 15, and Loong Air increased flights on the Jeju-Hangzhou route from four to seven per week from Sept. 16. China Southern Airlines plans to restart the Jeju-Harbin route, which was suspended during the Covid-19 pandemic, with two flights per week starting from Sept. 26.

The aviation industry emphasizes that there is an increase of Chinese tourists entering Korea, while Korean airlines need to assess whether there is a corresponding increase in the demand of Korean travelers to China.

"Although there is increased interest among Chinese travelers for trips to Korea due to the reopening of group tourism, we haven't seen substantial changes in demand from the Korean side," an airline insider told the Korea JoongAng Daily on Monday under the condition of anonymity.

"In the past, there was a significant demand for business trips from Korea to China, but many Korean businesses have pulled out of China," the official added. "For travelers, going to China for tourism can be challenging due to visa issuance difficulties, and there's actually more interest in traveling to destinations in Southeast Asia and Japan."

Furthermore, the reopening of group visas in China is a recent development, and the process of arranging tours, recruiting customers and issuing visas locally can take some time. Therefore, the airlines plan to expand flights based on the trend in demand.

"We cannot simply open flights when group visas for travel become available," another airline official said under anonymity. "There's a need for time to coordinate local travel agencies, visa issuance and various other factors required for group tours. So, the resumption of group tourism doesn't immediately lead to a decision for flight expansion."

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