The mass exodus for the first Lunar New Year holiday without pandemic restrictions began Friday morning with expressways already congested with people making their way to their hometowns.

According to the Korea Expressway Corporation, as of noon on Friday, the average travel time expected from the Seoul tollgate to the southern port city Busan is six hours and ten minutes, some two hours longer than usual.

It is expected to take five hours and 50 minutes to Ulsan, over five hours to Daegu and Gwangju, two hours and 40 minutes to the east coast city of Gangneung and more than three hours to Daejeon in the central region.

Airports are also expected to be crowded, with the Korea Airports Corporation estimating that from Friday to next Tuesday, over one million people will use 14 airports nationwide, excluding Incheon International Airport, with a majority of them taking domestic flights.

On Friday alone, Gimpo International Airport is expected to see over 67-thousand passengers.

According to the corporation, over 66-hundred flights will operate during the holiday to meet customer demand.

Incheon International Airport projects over 70-thousand-700 passengers to catch flights on Friday alone, with an estimated total of some 616-thousand using the main gateway airport through Tuesday.