The Seoul Metropolitan Government (SMG) reported that the city has seen a spike in the number of passengers using airport buses and international taxis. This is seen as a result of the return to normalcy and resumed tourism following the pandemic, which are contributing to the continuous rise.

The city first analyzed relevant data collected from 2022 to February 2023 and took note of airport bus passengers’ comeback in 2022, recording 1.23 million total annually, compared to 2021 during which airport bus service was suspended.

The city saw that the collected data from 2022 to 2023 showed a continuous rise in the number of airport bus passengers—comparing the data of February 2022 to February 2023, the number rose by 320,000 (up 1,600% year-over-year) from 20,000 to 340,000; and comparing the data of the first half of 2022 to the second half of 2022, the number rose from 180,000 to 1.05 million (up 474% over six months).

With the spike in the number of airport bus passengers, the city increased the number of bus routes. Of the 43 authorized airport bus routes in Seoul, there are 28 routes (65.1%) in operation as of March 2023, which is an increase by 13 compared to the 15 routes operated as of July 2022. The city plans to continuously increase the number of routes within this year to reach 90% operation.

The city also saw a rise in the number of passengers using international taxis. In just nine months since the full-scale service resumption in April 2022, international taxis recorded 25,095 rides.

Seoul plans to respond quickly to this upward trend in the number of passengers to and support domestic travelers’ and international tourists’ convenient transport to and from the airport as demand for airport-related transportation is expected to keep rising this year following the citywide return to normalcy.