The Incheon International Airport Corporation projects that the number of flights landing and departing from the airport will fully normalize to pre-pandemic levels this winter.

According to the corporation on Wednesday, the airport was allotted a record 193-thousand-163 slots for the winter season from late October to late March during the International Air Transport Association Slot Conference held in Dublin, Ireland last week.

The allocation is up 85 percent from the same period last year and an increase of some 15 percent compared to the winter of 2018, prior to the COVID-19 outbreak, when the airport was allotted the previous record of some 168-thousand slots.

A slot refers to the authorization to take off or land at a certain airport at a specific time on a particular day.

Flights departing from Incheon International Airport to China and those coming the other way are set to climb nearly 21 percent this winter.