South Korea and China will expand the number of direct flights to pre-COVID-19 levels.

The transport ministry said on Friday that it reached an agreement with the Chinese government on the flight expansion that will see the airlines of the two countries offer 608 direct flights per week in line with transportation rights under their air transport accord.

Under the agreement, airlines will expand the number of weekly flights to more than 200 by the end of this month before steadily increasing flights further.

The number of flights linking Incheon with Beijing, Shanghai, Qingdao and Yanji are set to see an increase this month.

From the outbreak of the pandemic until recently, up to 62 flights between the two countries operated per week after China limited operations, a drop of more than one-thousand weekly flights before the pandemic in 2019.