Jeju International Airport. (Yonhap)
SEOUL, Dec. 18 (Korea Bizwire) — The number of passengers handled this year by Jeju International Airport, the gateway to Jeju Island, topped 30 million for the first time, data showed Wednesday.
A total of 30,057,300 passengers traveled through the airport on the southern resort island until Dec. 16 this year, according to the data released by the Korea Airports Corp.
It is the first time for any of 14 airports in South Korea, excluding Incheon International Airport, to handle more than 30 million passengers a year.
The number of passengers using the Jeju airport’s domestic terminal had shown an average annual increase of 7.3 percent in recent years, rising from 24.24 million in 2015 to 26.96 million in 2016, 28.32 million in 2017 and 27.55 million in 2018.
The number of international terminal users had fluctuated, with 2.25 million in 2014, 1.99 million in 2015, 2.74 million in 2016, 1.27 million in 2017 and 1.89 million in 2018.
In the first 11 months of this year, domestic and international terminal passengers increased 3.1 percent and 40.9 percent, respectively.
The milestone of 30 million passengers was already anticipated, as the Jeju airport’s infrastructure expansion project was completed in May.
The project expanded the Jeju airport’s terminal space 31.6 percent from 95,795 square meters to 126,089 square meters and its annual passenger handling ability 22.4 percent from 25.89 million to 31.7 million.
Corporation officials speculate that visitors to Jeju have spiked amid decreased demand for tourism in Japan and rising arrivals from China.
At the current pace of increase, the annual number of Jeju International Airport passengers is expected to reach 31 million this year, they said.
(Yonhap)
