Hualien: Hualien County is set to launch its second international flight route in November, featuring two weekly round-trip flights connecting Seoul/Incheon in South Korea with the eastern county, as announced by Yu Ming-hsun, head of the Hualien Tourism Department, on Monday.

According to Focus Taiwan, the flights will be operated by Aero K Airlines Co., a South Korean low-cost carrier, starting November 13. Scheduled on Thursdays and Sundays, these flights are the result of a memorandum of understanding signed between the county government and Aero K in mid-May.

Seoul/Incheon will join Hong Kong as the second international destination with direct scheduled flights to Hualien. Hong Kong Express Airways began four weekly scheduled round-trip services to Hualien in December 2024, Yu added.

Yu noted that visitors from South Korea now surpass those from Japan in numbers, and there is significant interest among Hualien residents to visit South Korea. Several tour operators have already started promoting tour packages on social media platforms in Taiwan.

The Tourism Administration has been subsidizing chartered flights from overseas to attract more visitors to Hualien and neighboring Taitung. The number of flights eligible for subsidies increased from four in 2023 to 16 in 2024 and 43 in the first seven months of this year.

The 43 subsidized flights brought in over 5,600 foreign visitors from Hong Kong, Vietnam, and Thailand, contributing an estimated NT$60 million (US$1.96 million) to the local economy in the two counties in eastern Taiwan, according to the Tourism Administration.