EVA Airways Corp (長榮航空) and its domestic and regional subsidiary Uni Airways Corp (立榮航空) yesterday announced that they are to increase flights to South Korea by 55 percent, effective from January, due to growing air travel demand between the two nations.
By that time, the number of flights operated by the two carriers between Taiwan and South Korea are set to rise to 34 per week from the current 22, EVA Airways said.
From Jan. 3 onward, EVA Airways is to open two weekly flights between Taichung and Incheon, and from Jan. 21, it is to double the number of weekly flights between Taoyuan and Incheon to 18.
UNI Airways is to start three weekly flights between Taoyuan and Incheon from Jan. 3 on a code-sharing basis with EVA Airways, while its current two weekly flights between Taichung and Incheon are to be operated by EVA Airways.
Coupled with the existing Songshan-Gimpo and Kaohsiung-Incheon flights, the number of flights to Seoul conducted by the two carriers are to increase from 22 to 34 per week next year, EVA Airways said.
Last year, Taiwanese travelers made 630,000 visits to South Korea, according to the company.
It is expected that the number of visits by Taiwanese to South Korea this year would be on par with last year’s level, despite the effects of Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS), it added.
On the other hand, South Korean tourists paid 530,000 visits to Taiwan last year, while that number was reached in the first 10 months of this year, EVA Airways said.
In related news, the Civil Aeronautics Administration (CAA) under the Ministry of Transportation and Communications is planning a new flight path along Taiwan’s east coast to alleviate the air traffic over Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport.
The CAA yesterday said that the sky over the airport has been overcrowded with 610 scheduled flights arriving and departing every day, in addition to 410 daily transit flights.
The new air path needs to be approved by military authorities because it would pass through restricted airspace reserved for military exercises and air force training, according to the CAA.
About one-third of transit flights at the Taoyuan airport are between Southeast Asian destinations and Japan or South Korea, CAA data showed.
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