Airlines, Passengers Flock to Busan

A growing number of foreign airlines are starting operations in Korea.

The German airline Lufthansa announced on November that it would open up a new air route from Busan via Incheon to Munich, Germany starting March 27 next year.

A340-330 (221 seats) Airbus jets will operate on the new air route from Busan to Munich, leaving Busan for Munich every Tuesday, Friday and Sunday. Although it passes through Incheon, the company said, this was the first time for the company to operate a direct flight from Busan to one of the major cities in Europe.

Chairman Wolfgang Mayrhuber of Lufthansa visited Korea and held a press conference on October 31 at Shilla Hotel, Seoul. During the press conference he said, “The number of our customers using the Seoul to Frankfurt route, which is already operating, is growing by 10 percent each year. Thanks to its rapidly developing industries such as shipbuilding and electronics, Korea’s exchanges with Europe are on the constant rise, raising growth potential for airline business in the nation.

Prior to Lufthansa’s announcement, the U.S. carrier Delta Air Lines, which withdrew from the Korean market following the 1997 foreign exchange crisis, also announced it would reopen its Incheon-Atlanta route and operate four times a week from June 4 next year.

United Airlines of the U.S. has also reopened its Incheon to San Francisco route in April this year and is now operating the route seven times a week.

The airline industry is expecting that Korea’s airline market will continue to grow thanks to the increasing exchanges between Korea and other countries and rising numbers of Koreans who go abroad for tourism.

According to the Incheon International Airport Corp. (IIAC), the number of international passengers using Incheon Airport increased by more than 5 million from 20.553 million in 2002 to around 25.591 in 2005. The number of international aircraft using Incheon Airport also surged from 122,518 units in 2002 to 157,134 units in 2005.

IIAC said, “The number of passengers using Incheon Airport is rising by 7 percent every year and we expect a similar growth rate for this year, too.”

aryssong@donga.com