South Korea’s Asiana Airlines has announced it will double its operations between Melbourne and Seoul when it recommences direct services between the two cities later this year.

The recent twice weekly seasonal services commenced in December and will end this month, however the airline has confirmed that seasonal flights (doubled to four per week) will resume operations from July 2 through until September 2.

Flights will operate on Tuesdays, Thursdays, Saturdays and Sundays leaving Melbourne on a state-of-the-art Airbus A350 at 11:10pm and touching down in Seoul at 9:15am the following day.

Asiana became the first airline since the pandemic to provide Victorians with a direct link to the nine million strong South Korean capital when it commenced operations in December.

Melbourne Airport Chief of Aviation Jim Parashos said the announcement comes after strong demand over the Christmas and New Year period.

“Seoul was Melbourne’s largest unserved market, so it was no surprise to us when in January we saw an average load factor of 96% on all Asiana flights arriving into Melbourne Airport, which represents fewer than 10 vacant seats free on almost every flight” he said.

“We know there’s huge demand for this service with more than 4500 passengers flying between the two cities across December and January.

“This new seasonal service will coincide with Korea’s peak holiday period, so we expect it to attract even stronger demand.

“Whilst an incredible culinary and music scene has driven strong leisure interest, we expect demand for business travel to grow as Korean corporate giants such as Hanwha and Lotte increase their Victorian footprint.

“We also think many Victorians will utilise Asiana services to Europe, North Asia and North America, given the opportunity to break their journey in Seoul.

“This is a big commitment and sign of faith from Asiana in the Melbourne market and will hopefully pave the way for year-round services in the future.

“An average daily international flight is worth more than $154 million a year to the Victorian economy and gives exporters more options for sending high value, time critical goods into foreign markets.

“In December we became the first capital city airport to exceed pre-pandemic international capacity and announcements like this show we are not looking back in 2024. “