Travel to Japan continues to be popular in South Korea…Airlines expand routes and increase flights during the year-end and New Year holidays Photos International News: AFPBB News

[December 26, KOREA WAVE]The number of Koreans traveling to Japan increased rapidly in November, which was traditionally the off-season. The airline industry is expanding routes and increasing flights in anticipation of the busy season from the end of the year to the New Year.

According to the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism's Aviation Information Portal System, there were 1,890,015 travelers to Japan last month. This was higher than in November 2019 (1,049,753 people), just before the coronavirus outbreak, and November 2018 (1,766,551 people), before the Japan boycott movement “No Japan''. This is an increase of more than 1 million people since November last year (816,901 people).

There was no off-season on Japan routes this year. The number of tourists has steadily increased every month from 1.3 million in January, reaching more than 1.8 million last month. This is due to a combination of the weak yen and rebound consumption due to the coronavirus. Amid the economic downturn, it appears that tourists have flocked to Japan, where costs are relatively low.

Thanks to this, low-cost carriers (LCCs) are doing well. A total of 21,692,604 passengers took international flights using LCCs from January to November this year, which was more than FSCs (20,633,499 passengers), which have higher quality of service.

The airline industry believes that Japan's popularity will continue for some time, and airlines have increased flights for the busy season from the end of the year to the beginning of the new year. Starting in January next year, Korean Air will increase irregular flights, including 21 flights to Kagoshima, 31 flights to Oita, 28 flights to Kumamoto, and 4 flights to Shirahama. This is the first time in about five years since the Oita route was suspended in February 2019. Air Seoul will also expand its Tokyo (Narita) route from 21 times a week to 23 times a week starting in January.

(c)MONEYTODAY/KOREA WAVE/AFPBB News