Air traffic in South Korea surged last year as domestic flights hit a record high.

According to data from the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport on Wednesday, the total number of international and domestic flights last year came to 539-thousand-788 in 2022, up 16 percent from a year earlier.

After logging steady but modest growth during the COVID-19 pandemic, air traffic volume surged from June of last year as countries eased quarantine measures and entry restrictions to log a daily average of one-thousand-479 flights in South Korea.

The number of flights on domestic routes posted a record 263-thousand-432 last year, the largest since the country started compiling related data in 1996. The daily average was 722, up from 675 in 2019 before the pandemic. 

The amount of international flights jumped 36 percent on-year to over 276-thousand last year, or 757 a day. The comparable number in 2019 was one-thousand-632 flights a day. 

Incheon International Airport was the busiest airport in South Korea last year with an average of 521 flights a day, followed by Jeju International Airport and Gimpo International Airport.