Over 270,000 to go abroad for Lunar New Year

Over 270,000 people are to travel overseas during the three-day Lunar New Year holiday, hitting a record high since Incheon International Airport opened in 2001, airport officials said Thursday.

According to the airport, 272,796 passengers are scheduled to leave the country between Jan. 20 and 25. This is an 8.7 percent increase from last year’s 251,047.

“Families traveling overseas during the traditional holiday season is a new trend. We will do our best to make travel convenient during the holiday period,” said an airport official.

This year the Lunar New Year holiday starts on Jan. 22, Sunday. Last year, workers had five consecutive days off ― Saturday, Sunday and three for the Lunar New Year holiday.

During the three-day holiday, 274,977 people are slated to visit Korea through the airport.

Airport officials said that a total of 547,773 international flight passengers are scheduled to enter or leave the country via the airport during that time as well.

The figure will peak at 102,960 on Saturday after reaching 101,211 on Friday.

With the jump in the number of passengers, the number of flights will increase 4.2 percent from last year to 3,403 flights, officials said.

On domestic routes from Incheon airport, 11,250 passengers are expected to take flights.

Fourteen other local airports expect to see a total of 356,078 domestic passengers, according to the Korea Airports Corporation.

By Lee Woo-young (wylee@heraldcorp.com)