On October 2, 2024, South Korea’s Sejong City and Aero K signed an agreement to work toward improving the connectivity of Cheongju Airport, which serves the city, local media reported.
As part of the agreement, the city will improve access to the airport by public transport while Aero K will aim to develop international routes out of the airport. A potential Cheongju – Tokyo Haneda route was highlighted in particular, however, additional details were not provided.
Currently, no airline connects the two airports. That said, Aero K already operates two daily flights from Cheongju to Tokyo Narita. Separately, the airline also operates Seoul Incheon – Narita daily and Cheongju – Osaka Kansai twice a day. It occasionally also operates charters between Cheongju and regional airports in Japan, such as its two roundtrips between Cheongju and Obihiro earlier this month.
With Haneda being slot-restricted and there being no unallocated daytime slots between Japan and South Korea, the way in which Aero K would implement the Cheongju – Haneda route is unclear. While the Japanese government plans to reallocate some of the flights currently operated by Korean Air and Asiana Airlines to other airlines once the two merge, it excluded the airlines’ Tokyo – Seoul flights from such action.
