Passenger transportation on the Korea-China international ferry route between Incheon Port and Dalian, Liaoning Province, China, has resumed after 4 years and 2 months.
According to the Incheon Port Authority (IPA) on the 25th, the ferry operator Daehan Ferry restarted passenger transportation on the Incheon Port?Dalian route from the morning of the same day.
Previously, the operator had suspended passenger transportation and only carried cargo since the end of January 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. With the resumption of transportation, the ferry will operate three times a week, departing Incheon Port on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays to Dalian.
The ferry deployed on this route is the 15,000-ton class 'Biryongho,' which can carry 500 passengers and 145 TEU of cargo (1 TEU equals one 20-foot container) at once.
There are a total of 10 Korea-China ferry routes connecting Incheon and China. Among them, six routes have resumed passenger transportation after being suspended due to the COVID-19 pandemic: Qingdao, Weihai, Shandong, Yantai, Lianyungang, and now Dalian. The remaining routes that have not yet resumed passenger transportation are still under review by each ferry operator.
An IPA official stated, "The reopening of the Incheon-Dalian route will lay the foundation for ushering in an era of one million Korea-China ferry passengers again," adding, "We will establish stable passenger transportation conditions in line with the increasing passenger trends."
Meanwhile, IPA has started operating cafes and convenience stores to improve the convenience of users at the Incheon Port International Passenger Terminal, and has additionally prepared passenger waiting areas to reduce congestion in the densely populated sections of the international passenger terminal.
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