SEOUL, Feb. 6 (Xinhua) -- South Korea's international flights returned to about 60 percent of the pre-pandemic level in January due to growing travels to Japan and other Southeast Asian countries, the transport ministry said Monday.
In January, the number of international flights in the country stood at 27,206, or 60.4 percent of the 45,046 flights tallied in January 2019, according to the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport.
The number of passengers on international routes reached 4,611,370, or 57.5 percent of the figure posted in January 2019.
The ministry said local demand has surged for travels to Japan, Vietnam, Thailand and other Southeast Asian countries since October last year, noting that more South Korean people went abroad during the Lunar New Year holiday last month.
The number of passengers on domestic routes came in at 2,644,941 in January, 3.7 percent higher than the reading recorded in the same month of 2019.
