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Flights to and from the Americas and Japan are bringing in money for Korean Air and Asiana Airlines. While the number of passengers to and from Europe and China declined from the end of last year, it increased on routes to and from the Americas and Japan.
Korean Air on Sunday said the total number of passengers on international flights in December 2008 dropped 6 percent from a year ago but the number on its American routes went up by 8 percent and on Japanese routes by 3 percent. "The situation has been similar this year," a spokesman said. As for Asiana, the number of passengers on international flights from December to January fell by 10 percent on-year but numbers rose by 10 and 11 percent on American and Japanese routes. The number of foreign passengers bound for Korea is bigger than that of Koreans going abroad.
"The number of passengers from the United States transiting Korea on their way to other Asian countries such as China and Japan has soared," a spokesman said, as a result of our efforts to increase the number of flights to and from the United States at the end of last year to meet the increase in demand after Koreans were included in the U.S. visa waiver program. The reason behind the surge on Japanese routes is soaring numbers of Japanese visitors lured to Korea for shopping and sightseeing by the cheap won.
(englishnews@chosun.com )
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