◀ anchor ▶
Our national airline’s passenger flights between Incheon and Beijing, China, resumed today.
There are round trip flights only once a week, on Saturdays.
It has been two years and four months since the flight was suspended due to the corona virus.
Correspondent Jo Hee-hyeong from Beijing delivers.
◀ Report ▶
This morning, the departure hall of Incheon International Airport.
The counter dedicated to Beijing, China is bustling with people checking in.
It is the first time in two years and four months since the suspension of the corona virus by a Korean national airline.
[조윤균]
“(What are you going for?) Visiting relatives. It’s been two and a half years. I can’t go because of Corona, but I’m going this time.”
The Incheon-Beijing route was a key route between Korea and China, used by 1.1 million people a year before Corona 19.
When flights resumed, all seats from Incheon to Beijing were sold out.
Passengers arriving in Beijing are immediately transferred to a hotel designated by the quarantine authorities, quarantined for one week, and then self-isolated for three days.
Incheon-Beijing round-trip Asiana Airlines, which resumed today, operate once a week.
The Chinese airline only flies from Beijing to Incheon once a month.
Before the outbreak of Corona, flights between Incheon and Beijing were operated 38 times a week by Korean national airlines only.
Even when expanded to all of Korea and China, the number of flights between the two countries, which was over 1,100 a week, has drastically decreased to regarding 20 now.
In a situation where business trips are not easy, travel is virtually blocked, so in a recent survey, 9 out of 10 Chinese people interested in Korea answered that they would like to go to Korea within a year once quarantine is lifted.
[류 씨]
“I go because there is a direct flight, so it’s convenient. I mightn’t go when the corona was severe, and the cost of quarantine (in China) was too high when I came back.”
As China has recently eased its quarantine policy, it has begun to gradually increase its international routes and is also reducing the quarantine period for overseas travelers.
However, as we are paying close attention to the influx of Corona from overseas, there is a possibility that flights from Korea may be suspended at any time if there is a confirmed case of Corona.
This is Jo Hee-hyeong from MBC News in Beijing.
Video coverage: Kim Jun-hyung, Zhang Bao-sen (Beijing) / Video editing: Lee Sang-min
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