Flight passengers line up to check-in at a counter in Incheon International Airport Terminal 1, Aug. 4. Yonhap

The number of international flight passengers during the summer vacation season this year increased 19.9 percent on-year to fully recover to the pre-pandemic level, data showed Sunday.

A total of 15.69 million people used international flights at Korean airports in July and August, up nearly 20 percent from a year earlier, according to the data compiled by the Korea Airports Corp. and the Incheon International Airport.

This year's figure came to about 97 percent of that logged in 2019.

By destination, the number of travelers using flights linking Korea and Japan came to 4.17 million during the cited period, which was the largest number for a single country.

The figure marked an 18.5 percent on-year increase and 25 percent growth from the 2019 level.

The number of passengers using the Southeast Asian routes rose 8 percent on-year to 4.25 million in July and August. It came to 95.4 percent of the 2019 level.

Around 2.79 million people took flights to and from China in the summer, which marked 58.9 percent on-year growth.

The number of passengers traveling to and from America advanced 16.3 percent to 1.23 million, while demand for flights linking Europe inched down 0.2 percent to 879,000 amid the ongoing Russia-Ukraine conflict and other issues, the data showed. (Yonhap)