Air routes between South Korea and Japan remain rare despite allowance of quarantine-exemptions for business trips starting this month, whereas borders have much normalized with another closest neighbor, China, to suggest Seoul’s bias in border policy due to diplomatic and history issues.

According to the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, and Transport on Monday, only two routes are in operation between Korea and Japan since May – from Incheon to Narita and Incheon to Osaka, significantly reduced from 31 before the outbreak of Covid-19. Both nations closed down most routes between them to prevent the spread of Covid-19.

The Gimpo-Haneda route, the common flight stops in the two capitals, is still sealed off despite special entry allowance. The Gimpo-Haneda route connects Seoul and Tokyo by the shortest time, saving at least three hours compared with the Incheon-Narita route.

An unnamed official from the transport ministry said that Gimpo-Haneda route has been suspended since April 3. While Tokyo asks for the reopening of Gimpo-Haneda, Seoul keeps all international flights restrained to the Incheon International Airport for quarantine effectiveness.

The Gimpo Airport is a smaller airport in Seoul that mainly serves local flights and some flights to and from Japan and China.

The business community suspects diplomatic tensions between the two governments for the delay in the opening.

The Japanese government has eased travel restrictions for most foreign travelers and increased the capacity of coronavirus tests at Narita, Haneda, and Kansai as well as Nagoya, Sapporo, and Fukuoka.

Seoul however has been eager to normalize sky routes with China. There are currently 21 regular flights in operation between Korea and China. The number of routes had been reduced significantly to eight from 84 before the outbreak of Covid-19 in March, but 13 of them have been resumed.

Korean Air resumed its regular flight from Incheon to Zhengzhou on Oct. 4 and Asiana Airlines Incheon-Harbin on Oct. 1. Air Busan also resumed its Busan-Qingdao route on Oct. 15 – although passengers coming in from Qingdao to Busan must travel to Incheon to go through immigration procedure. The routes had all been suspended 7 to 8 months ago due to Covid-19.

By Yang Yeon-ho and Lee Eun-joo

[ⓒ Pulse by Maeil Business Newspaper & mk.co.kr, All rights reserved]