The Ministry of Land, Transport and Maritime Affairs(MLTM) announced that air cargo traffic in the first quarter recorded 857,000 tons, down 1.9% compared to the same period previous year.

Due to decrease of trade volume, international flight handled 783,000 tons down 2.9% whereas domestic flight recorded 74,000 tons up 9.6% propelled by cargo increase on Jeju route.

Looking into the international air traffic, it showed decrease in the Middle East, Japan, China and the U.S. regions affected by the fall in export of IT products including smart phone. However, South East Asia, Europe and Oceanian regions have had traffic increase due to the rise in tourists and import of agricultural, livestock and fishery products.

Expansion of overseas manufacturing bases in China, Vietnam etc. affected decrease in export of mobile phones while TV went through the fall in export to Central and South America as well owing to expansion of its local production in Mexico.

Categorizing by the airports, Incheon Airport showed 743,000 tons down 3.8% compared to the previous year, Kimhae Airport 16,000 tons up 2.1% and Kimpo Airport 20,000 tons up 3.2%.