Korea-China air routes to be suspended during summer vacation season
A board shows the departure time of flights to Chinese cities at Gimpo International Airport in Seoul, Sunday. Yonhap
By Lee Hae-rin
Korean airlines are poised to suspend some of their air routes between Korea and China due to a drop in demand over China's travel visa restriction on tour groups to Korea.
According to the aviation industry, Tuesday, Korean Air, the country's largest full-service carrier, will suspend its major Korea-China route between Gimpo and Beijing from Aug. 1 to Oct. 28. The route between Incheon and Xiamen will also be halted from Aug. 9 to Oct. 28.
Asiana Airlines, Korea's second-largest airline, also announced it would stop serving the Gimpo-Beijing and Incheon-Shenzhen routes in July, after having already suspended its Incheon-Xi'an route last Tuesday.
The airlines' measures came as the number of travelers between the two countries remained lower than expected due to China's ban on tour group visas, according to airlines officials.
Aviation statistics from the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport's portal show 120.63 million travelers flew between the two countries between January and May this year.
The figure is only 16.7 percent of the 721.31 million for the same period in 2019 before the pandemic, and also 17.3 percent of the 697.25 million Korea-Japan travelers in the same period this year.
In March, Chinese Ambassador to Korea Xing Haiming attended a ceremony marking the resumption of flights between Gimpo and China at Gimpo International Airport and referred to the high travel demand from the two countries' tourists and businesspeople.
The resumption of flights between Gimpo and China, 56 flights per week, will “create a new dynamic in human resource exchanges and economic cooperation between the two countries,” he said.
China lifted its ban on tour group visas to 60 countries, including Thailand, Indonesia, Nepal and Vietnam. However, Korea and other U.S. ally nations including Japan, Australia, Germany, Canada, Australia and New Zealand still face travel restrictions on tour groups.
In response, China's state-controlled media Global Times reported negatively on the air travel suspension, Sunday.
“Chinese observers believe the adjustments are due to market factors, which reflect that South Korean airlines have low confidence that there will be any notable increase in terms of passenger loads in the short term, since the incumbent administration of President Yoon Suk Yeol has yet to display the resolution and will to improve ties with China,” it reported.
Korea-China ties are witnessing intensifying tensions after Xing said earlier this month that those who bet on Beijing to lose in its rivalry with Washington will "definitely regret it," apparently accusing the Yoon administration of aligning with the United States and shifting away from China.
Meanwhile, Korean airlines said the total number of flights to destinations in China during the summer vacation season will remain the same or exceed the current level, despite the suspension of some of their major routes.
Korean Air will resume flights between Incheon and Changsha and Weihai on July 19 and Sept. 27, respectively, increasing the total number of weekly flights between the two countries from 95 to 124. Asiana Air will also maintain its flights between Korea and China at 85 per week.