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Three-way shuttle flights connecting Korea¡¯s Gimpo Airport, China¡¯s Hongchao and Japan¡¯s Haneda will soon turn into a reality. Following the launch of the Gimpo-Haneda air route in November 2003, the Haneda-Hongchao route opened on Sept. 29, and the Gimpo-Hongchao line is now expected to open on Oct. 28 as well. The new routes will cut travel time as the airports are closer to Seoul, Shanghai and Tokyo respectively than Incheon, Pudong and Narita. The flights will make it possible to travel between Seoul, Shanghai and Tokyo in a single day, thus, it is hoped, promoting cultural exchanges among the three countries.
¡ß Gimpo-Hongchao line opens on Oct. 28
A total of four airlines -- Korean Air and Asiana Airlines plus two from China -- will each offer a roundtrip per day on the Gimpo-Hongchao route. The Haneda-Hongchao route already went into operation on Sept. 29 with two airlines each from Japan and China flying once a day. Meanwhile on the Gimpo-Haneda route, four airlines -- Korean, Asiana, Japan Airlines and ANA -- are all running two roundtrips per day.
In talks between their foreign ministers in Jeju Island last June, Korea, China and Japan decided to promote the regular shuttle flights. ¡°We hope to expand the number of flights so that customers can take any flight they want depending on their convenience,¡± said an insider from Korea¡¯s Ministry of Construction and Transportation.
¡ßUp to an hour saved
The timesaving factor is the biggest merit of the Gimpo-Haneda-Hongchao shuttle flights. Gimpo and Haneda airports are only 12 km and 16 km away from Seoul and Tokyo, allowing customers easier access to downtown than Incheon (52 km) and Narita (60 km). ¡°Flight times are more or less the same for both routes, but the Gimpo-Haneda route draws more business customers as it cuts the traveling time to downtown by two or three hours,¡± a Korean Air staffer says.
The number of customers flying Gimpo-Haneda increased by more than 50 percent within just a year from 942,460 in 2005 to 1.41 million in 2006. Compared to the Inchoen-Pudong route, Gimpo-Hongchao is also expected to save a minimum of one hour. According to an airline company, the Gimpo-Hongchao route will attract more than 500,000 customers per year.
The catch, however, is that the Gimpo line is more expensive, with a roundtrip ticket costing W460,000 (US$1=W913), as against W380,000 for Incheon-Pudong. Asiana is likely to adopt similar price range. The Gimpo-Haneda roundtrip is also slightly more expensive at W550,000 compared to the W500,000 for Incheon-Narita.
(englishnews@chosun.com )
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