Gimpo-Haneda flight service to resume early next month: diplomatic source
Travelers queue in lines at Gimpo International Airport in Seoul, July 8, 2021. Korea and Japan have agreed to resume flight services between major airports in their capitals early next month. Yonhap
Korea and Japan have agreed to resume flight services between major airports in their capitals early next month after suspending them for more than two years due to the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a diplomatic source Friday.
The Northeast Asian neighbors plan to reopen the air route between Gimpo International Airport in Seoul and Haneda Airport in Tokyo in early June, at the latest, the source said.
While flights between Korea's main gateway Incheon International Airport and Japan's Narita International Airport have remained operational, services between the Gimpo-Haneda airports, more convenient in terms of public access, had been shuttered since March 2020.
Late last month, a delegation sent by Korean President-elect Yoon Suk-yeol to Japan proposed reopening the Gimpo-Haneda route among several measures to boost people-to-people exchanges during its meetings with Japan's Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and other officials
Korea's major airlines, Korean Air and Asiana Airlines, as well as Japanese ones such as Japan Airlines and All Nippon Airways, have applied for the resumption of the flight services. (Yonhap)