International Air Services of National Airlines will increase by 8.2%

The Ministry of Land, Transport and Maritime Affairs announced an international and domestic flight schedule for 2010 summer time starting from March 28 till October 30.

Demand for international air flights is expected to increase thanks to economic recovery, national airline companies will increase cargo and passenger flight frequency from 1,344 of last year to 1,455 for this year. However, air flight frequency of foreign airline companies will slightly decrease due to JAL management crisis and Chinese companies supply control.

Korea-China routes account for 33.4% (768 weekly frequency) of the total air services, Korea-Japan, 21.4% (492), Korea-U.S., 14.6% (335), Korea-Hong Kong, 5.5% (127), Korea-Philippines, 4.9% (114) and Korea-Thailand, 4.8% (110).

Compared to the summer of 2009, the weekly frequencies of Korea-Japan, the U.S. and China routes increased by 56, 53 and 15 times respectively and thereby the overall number of flights will increase for this year summer.

Especially, airline companies will increase their weekly frequency of Korea-Japan routes to 56 times thanks to the open skies agreement between the two nations that imposes no limits on weekly frequency and allows new airlines to enter the market, increasing the number of available flight tickets for people visiting Japan despite the management crisis of JAL.

Air flight services for America, Europe and South East Asia such as China, Thailand and the Philippines, will also be expanded since demand for the routes is continuously increasing.

Weekly frequency of domestic air routes for the 2010 summer will reach 1,428 times in total, providing 1,068 more seats (519,385 seats in total) than the summer of 2009. Air Busan and Eastar Air will increase their weekly frequency up to 7 and 70 times. On the other hand, Korean Air, Asiana Airline, Jeju Airline and Jin Air will reduce their weekly flights by 11, 13, 63, and 28 times respectively.<Korea Shipping Gazette>