Jeju Int'l Airport tops 30 million passengers

The number of annual passengers using Jeju International Airport exceeded 30 million for the first time this year, an airport operator said, Wednesday. / Korea Times file

By Kim Jae-heun

The number of annual passengers using Jeju International Airport exceeded 30 million for the first time this year, an airport operator said, Wednesday.

According to the Korea Airports Corp. (KAC), 30,057,300 people have traveled in and out of the southern resort island this year as of Monday.

Jeju International Airport has become the first local airport other than Incheon International Airport to top the 30 million mark for its annual number of passengers.

The number of passengers using the domestic terminal at Jeju International Airport has been steadily increasing by an average of 7.3 percent annually. The number of passengers who used the airport stood at 20.9 million in 2014, followed by 24.2 million in 2015, 26.9 million in 2016 and 28.3 million in 2017. Last year, 27.5 million people used it.

However, the number of passengers flying in and out of Korea fluctuated during the same period, with 2.25 million in 2014, 1.99 million in 2015, 2.74 million in 2016, 1.27 million in 2017 and 1.89 million in 2018.

In the first 11 months of the year, the number of domestic and international terminal passengers rose by 3.1 percent and 40.9 percent, respectively.

According to the KAC, an infrastructure expansion project contributed to the airport handling such a high number of passengers.

The project, completed in May, expanded the airport's terminal areas by 31.6 percent, enabling it to accommodate 31.7 million passengers annually, compared with the previous number of 25.8 million ― a 22.4 percent increase.

The data revealed that more Korean tourists are traveling to Jeju Island instead of visiting Japan due to a boycott campaign targeting the neighboring country. Also the number of Chinese travelers to the resort island showed signs of recovery following the so-called THAAD retaliation, under which the Chinese government has banned Chinese tour groups due to the deployment of an anti-missile system on the Korean Peninsula.

The KAC said the average number of passengers using Jeju International Airport is expected to reach 31 million by the end of this year at the current pace of increase.