South Korea’s flag carrier Korean Air Lines Co. made additional changes to short-haul routes by rolling back flights to Japan and instead increasing choices to Southeast Asia, Oceania and China.

The nation’s largest full-service carrier will suspend operations between Busan and Osaka starting September 16 and Jeju-Narita and Jeju-Osaka lines on November 1. It will also halt Incheon to Komatsu route and Incheon to Kagoshima line from September 29 to November 16, and Incheon to Asahikawa route from September 29 to October 26.

The airline will cut operations between Incheon and Osaka and Incheon and Fukuoka from 28 times a week to 21 times from October 27 to November 16. From September 29 to November 16, Incheon-Okinawa lines will be running four times a week from current seven times, and Busan-Narita and Busan-Fukuoka routes will be cut to seven times per week from 14 times.

The schedule adjustments came amid strong travel boycott to Japan by Koreans since Japan tightened its shipments of three high-tech materials to Korea in an apparent retaliation against Korean court’s rulings ordering reparation on Japanese firms for wartime forced laborers. The bilateral tensions have been escalating as the Japanese government officially removed Korea from its list of trusted trade allies and the Korean government also took Japan off its own whitelist in a tit-tat-for action.

In order to make up the loss from the reduced flights to Japan, Korean Air will expand routes to the Southeast Asian nations, Oceanian region and China. It will begin to run a line between Incheon and Clark in the Philippines seven times per week from October 27 and expand Incheon-Da Nang lines from 14 times a week to 21. It also plans to add four more flights each to lines between Incheon and Bali and Incheon and Brisbane to increase operations to 11 and seven times a week, respectively.

On expectations that Korean travelers would choose China as an alternative for Japan, Korean Air plans to start operating flights between Incheon and Zhangjiajie three times a week, Incheon-Hangzhou three times and Incheon-Nanjing four times as soon as it receives approval from the government. It will also increase flights between Incheon and Beijing from current 14 times a week to 17 times.

By Noh Hyun and Choi Mira

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