Air flight timetable is slowly normalizing with 51 international routes being offered from South Korea starting next month, about 12.5 percent of 400 that had been available in December.

Maeil Business Newspaper found eight Korean carriers – Korean Air Lines, Asiana Airlines, Jeju Air, Jin Air, Air Busan, T’way Air, Eastar Air and Air Seoul – will run a total of 51 international routes in June, up from 29 two months ago.

The operation rate still hovers around 12.5 percent of the levels at the end of last year, but nevertheless indicates life back in the air travel industry.

Full-service carrier Korean Air Lines resumed services to Singapore on May 8, with non-regular flights to Jakarta of Indonesia and Kuala Lumpur of Malaysia. Eleven routes to Washington, Seattle, Toronto, Vancouver, Amsterdam, Frankfurt, Hanoi, Yangon, Kuala Lumpur, Jakarta and Taipei will be reopen next month, increasing the number of its regular service to 25.

Asiana Airlines will service 17 long-haul routes in total in June by adding three destinations of Singapore, Sydney and Seattle. Flights to Seattle will be run after 77 days of closure, and the route to San Francisco has already been opened since May 1. Services to Frankfurt of Germany and Manila of the Philippines will be offered more.

On the budget front, Jin Air is preparing to reopen five routes to Bangkok, Hanoi, Taipei, Narita and Osaka next month in response to rising travel demand from Koreans living outside the country and to carry students, business travelers and cargoes.

Jeju Air will start operation of routes to Tokyo, Osaka and Manila from June, and Air Busan to Hong Kong and Macau from July and then to other cities in Japan and Southeast Asia.

More routes and services will likely be added after testing out demand in the peak summertime.

By Song Gwang-sup, Choi Keun-do and Lee Ha-yeon

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