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| Traveler wait to check in at Terminal 2 of Incheon International Airport, Oct. 4. Yonhap |
By Jun Ji-hye
Expectations toward demand recovery for overseas travel are rising in the aviation and tourism industries, in line with the government's move to shift to a "living with COVID-19" scheme next month.
In preparation for growing demand, domestic air carriers are rushing to resume their flights on international routes.
According to industry sources, Friday, flag carrier Korean Air is considering operating irregular flights to Hawaii, while the country's second-largest full-service carrier Asiana Airlines is planning to start operating flights to Guam next month.
Budget carriers are also joining moves to resume international flights, with Jeju Air, the nation's largest low-cost carrier, having applied for renewal of permission to operate flights on 18 international routes, including flights to Qingdao and Yantai of China and Chiang Mai and Bangkok of Thailand, according to the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport.
T'way Air and Jin Air have also applied for renewal of permission to run flights on the Busan-Hong Kong and Incheon-Macao routes, respectively.
Online tour agency Interpark Tour said demand for flights to European countries has been especially surging amid expectations for the policy shift, under which the social distancing measures stand to be eased and health authorities plan to focus more on managing critically ill patients rather than all cases.
Sales of flights to Madrid increased 625 percent last month compared to August, while sales of flights to Zurich and Amsterdam have seen 275 percent and 250 percent increases, respectively.
The company said more than 60 percent of the flights sold last month are scheduled to depart between this month and January, noting that growing demand for overseas travel at the end of this year and beginning of next year may have been reflected.
"We expect demand for overseas travel will continue to increase, as the country's vaccination program has been gaining speed," an official from a Seoul-based air carrier said.
Travel agencies are also busy preparing for resumption of overseas package tours.
Following the government's Oct. 8 signing of a travel bubble agreement with Singapore, the country's largest travel agency Hana Tour has released four kinds of Singapore package tours scheduled to commence next month.
The agreement, which will go into effect Nov. 15, is aimed at exempting or easing rules on mandatory quarantine for inbound travelers who have been fully vaccinated.
The firm said package tours to Saipan, which also signed a travel bubble agreement with Korea in July, have already sold out for 2021.
For its part, Very Good Tour has released package tours to European countries and Guam, while Interpark Tour has released aurora-spotting tours to Iceland, Finland and Norway.
