Travel options between Korea and China are set to expand as bilateral relations improve and demand grows. Korea and China have agreed to increase air traffic rights for the first time in seven years, laying the groundwork for adding flights on high-demand routes such as Incheon-Shanghai and Incheon-Guangzhou.
The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport (MOLIT) said Tuesday that the two countries agreed to add 70 weekly flights in traffic rights at a Korea-China aviation meeting held in Seoul over two days starting last month on the 27th. Passenger flights will rise by 56, from 608 to 664 per week, while cargo flights will increase by 14, from 54 to 68 per week.
The agreement marks the first increase in traffic rights since 2019. It follows the rapid recovery in human and material exchanges between the two countries, with Korea-China passenger traffic reaching approximately 4.39 million in the first quarter of this year, surpassing the pre-COVID-19 pandemic level of 4.14 million. Demand for travel between the two countries has grown significantly, as Koreans can visit China visa-free for up to 30 days for tourism, business, and visiting relatives through the end of this year, while Korea has also implemented a visa-free policy for Chinese group tourists.
In particular, traffic rights will increase by seven flights per week each on the Incheon-Shanghai and Incheon-Guangzhou routes, where adding flights had been difficult despite high demand because both countries had used up all existing traffic rights. The Incheon-Beijing, Incheon-Dalian, Incheon-Chengdu, and Incheon-Harbin routes will also each increase by seven flights. For consumers, the expanded flight options could bring price competition and a wider range of departure times.
Regional airport routes will also expand. A total of 14 weekly flights in regional-only traffic rights were added for routes from cities such as Busan and Cheongju to 10 Chinese cities, including Guangzhou, Chongqing, and Shenzhen. The move is expected to improve travel convenience for local residents while also drawing more foreign tourists to regional areas.
In the cargo sector, traffic rights with major Chinese cargo hub airports such as Tianjin, Zhengzhou, Ezhou, and Hefei increased by 14 flights per week. Ezhou and Hefei are newly established routes.
MOLIT plans to promptly allocate the secured traffic rights to airlines within the second half of the year to support a swift increase in flights. "Achieving a timely increase in traffic rights through active aviation talks is very encouraging," said Lee So-young, MOLIT's director general for aviation policy. "It will contribute to promoting Chinese tourism to Korea and energizing our airlines' entry into the Chinese market."
