KAL has launched a marketing team to strengthen marketing activities in various Chinese cities and establish regular flights between Korea and the Chinese cities. In May, KAL increased its regular passenger flights by four, including flights to and from China's Jinan, Xiamen, Yantai, and Shanghai, and one chartered flight to and from China's Yanji, bringing up the total number of passenger flights to China to 16.

A KAL executive said that the Chinese air-service industry has been growing annually by more than 30 percent in recent years and that the country will soon overtake Japan in terms of number of air travelers. As such, KAL will help establish more routes through which Chinese passengers can come to Incheon and change over into KAL for farther travel overseas.

Asiana has also set up a separate marketing team aimed at attracting more Chinese passengers ahead of the May-June FIFA World Cup in Korea and Japan. The younger of the two carriers said it will overhaul all of its cabin services for Chinese fliers, including more Chinese food, during the flights.

(Kim Jong-ho, tellme@chosun.com )