Air travel from Korea roars back to everywhere, except China

Flight routes between South Korea and China, once Korean flag carriers’ most lucrative, have become their white elephant as passengers on the routes are recovering at a snail’s pace despite China’s border reopening earlier this year.

Without relaxation in Beijing’s visa rules and a slowdown in the business exodus from China, passengers on the routes between the two neighboring countries are expected to remain low, industry observers said.

According to the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport on Friday, the number of passengers on Korea-China routes in the first six months of this year returned to only 21% the pre-pandemic level in 2019.

Over the same period, those on the US and Japan routes bounced back to 98.8% and 75.5%, respectively, close to pre-pandemic levels.

“Flights to most countries have rapidly rebounded, but even the booking rate of flight tickets to China remains low,” said an official from one of the Korean airlines.  

The sluggish recovery in air travel to China has dented the earnings of Korea’s two major full-service carriers, dashing hopes for the fast revival of China routes although Beijing has fully reopened its borders to foreign visitors.

Korean Air Lines Co. earned 219.9 billion won ($168.1 million) in sales from its flight operation on China routes in the January-June period this year, nearly halved from the same period in 2019 before the onset of COVID-19.

The share of China routes of its entire sales skid to about 5% from 12% over the same time.

Its smaller peer Asiana Airlines Inc., currently the most frequent flier to China among Korean carriers, is expected to suffer a bigger loss. It cut its weekly flight frequencies on China routes to 79 times as of Friday from 191 times in 2019.

STRICT TRAVEL RESTRICTIONS AND CHINA EXODUS

This is not what Korean flight operators had expected after China’s economic and border reopening earlier this year.

Industry observers blamed Beijing’s strict rules on issuing visitor visas, travel restrictions and geopolitical risks for still-weak demand for travel to China.

Foreigners applying for travel visas to China are required to list their parents’ jobs and submit all 10 fingerprints.

Foreign visitors are also required to stay in hotels with three stars or higher, not budget hotels or other forms of accommodation.

They also must be cautious about using smartphones or the internet in China during their visit due to the country’s new counter-espionage law.

Such inconveniences have dampened some Koreans desire to visit China, making them choose Japan over China for their holidays.   

Korean businesses’ escape from China amid the ongoing political and trade rows between the world’s two biggest economies the US and China is another reason for the delayed recovery in travel demand to China.

The Wall Street Journal recently reported that the number of foreign visitors to major cities in China such as Shanghai and Beijing in the first half of this year plummeted to one-fourth the pre-pandemic level.

Korean air carriers pin hopes on the Asian Games in Hangzhou, China for a rebound in passengers on Korea-China routes.

The Chinese government announced plans to ease business visa rules on foreigners and extend the visa validity of frequent visitors to up to three years, the South China Morning Post reported on Thursday.  

In commemoration of the 31st anniversary of establishing the diplomatic ties between South Korea and China, Beijing could also become more open to Korean travelers or Chinese group tours to Korea.

Write to Mi-Sun Kang and Jae-Fu Kim at misunny@hankyung.com

Sookyung Seo edited this article.