South Korea’s COVID recovery is gaining traction with the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport revealing almost 6 million passenger movements in or out of the country in the three months to 30 September 2022.
In total, there were 49,052 international flights operated in and out of South Korea, representing a 50.1% increase over the same period in 2021, with 5,883,591 passenger movements – up 540%.
Those passenger movements also continued a steady climb throughout the year, compared with just 1.09 million in Q1 and 2.87 million in Q2.
Monthly passenger movements had previously surpassed 1 million in June for the first time since the start of the pandemic, and reached 2 million in August, the Ministry said.
By country, more than 1 million of those passenger movements were travelling to and from Vietnam, with another 910,000 from the United States although Japan – seen as a key source of visitation for Korea’s foreigner-only casinos – also showed encouraging growth with the number of flights more than doubling quarter-on-quarter and number of passengers more than tripling to 439,224.
Japanese passengers have steadily grown from just 6,582 in June to 167,900 in September, aided by the recent relaxation of COVID-19 border restrictions.