South Korea's second-largest commercial carrier, Asiana Airlines, resumed flights to Beijing, Istanbul and Barcelona for the first time in two years and four months after they were suspended amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

According to the company on Monday, all three routes resumed operations on Saturday. The Incheon-Beijing route will continue to operate once a week, while the routes connecting Incheon to Istanbul and Barcelona will run twice a week.

On the first day, the flights to Istanbul and Barcelona had occupancy rates of 95 percent and 92 percent, respectively, and around 80 percent of available reservations for the two routes have been filled for next month.

Asiana Airlines also plans to increase the number of flights to Paris to six times a week from this Saturday, flights to Frankfurt to seven times a week from August 1, and those to Rome to three times a week starting August 14.