Tourists from the Republic of Korea visit Tsingtao Beer Museum in Qingdao City, east China"s Shandong Province, Dec. 31, 2025. (Xinhua/Li Ziheng)

　　The number of flights between the Chinese mainland and South Korea was up by more than 10 percent in 2025, data from an industry platform VariFlight sent to the Global Times showed on Friday.

　　In detail, in 2025, the number of operated flights between the Chinese mainland and South Korea was 108,526, compared with 98,027 in 2024, representing a growth rate of 10.7 percent, the platform said.

　　This is also in line with growth in the number of travelers between the two countries. Yonhap News reported on Friday that the number of travelers between South Korea and China jumped 22 percent to 16.8 million, supported by visa-waiver programs implemented by both countries, citing data from South Korean"s government.

　　The report said the number of airline passengers at South Korean airports totaled 124.8 million last year, up 3.9 percent from 120 million a year ago, according to the data from the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport.

　　The figure marked the highest annual total, surpassing the previous peak of 123.4 million in 2019, according to the Yonhap report.

　　The increase was largely driven by a rise in the number of international passengers to and from South Korea, which rose 6.3 percent on-year to around 94.5 million, while domestic travelers fell 2.8 percent to 30.2 million over the period.

　　Chinese experts attributed it to the visa-free policies, which has pushed two-way tourism into a new phase.