Gimpo-Haneda flight service to resume early next month: source

TOKYO, May 6 (Yonhap) -- South Korea and Japan have agreed to resume flight services between major airports in their capitals early next month after more than two years of suspension attributable to the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a diplomatic source Friday.

The Northeast Asian neighbors plan to reopen the air route between Gimpo International Airport in Seoul and Haneda Airport in Tokyo in early June, at the latest, the source said.

While flights between South Korea's main gateway Incheon International Airport and Japan's Narita International Airport have remained operational, the service between the Gimpo-Haneda airports, more convenient in terms of public access, had been shuttered since March 2020.

Late last month, a delegation sent by South Korean President-elect Yoon Suk-yeol to Japan proposed reopening the Gimpo-Haneda route among several measures to boost people-to-people exchanges during its meetings with Japan's Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and other officials

South Korea's major airlines, Korean Air and Asiana Airlines, as well as such Japanese ones as Japan Airlines and All Nippon Airways, have applied for the resumption of the flight services.

yunhwanchae@yna.co.kr
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