Korea-China air routes to be suspended during summer vacation season
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 120.63m travelers flew between the two countries between January and May this year. The figure is only 16.7% of the 721.31m for the same period in 2019 before the pandemic, and also 17.3% of the 697.25m 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 US 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.<br/>
https://portal.staralliance.com/cms/news/hot-topics/2023-06-28/star/korea-china-air-routes-to-be-suspended-during-summer-vacation-season
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Korea-China air routes to be suspended during summer vacation season
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 120.63m travelers flew between the two countries between January and May this year. The figure is only 16.7% of the 721.31m for the same period in 2019 before the pandemic, and also 17.3% of the 697.25m 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 US 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.<br/>
