Seoul, Jun 28 (IANS): Korean Air, South Korea's flag carrier, on Tuesday said it will restore its international flights to half of the pre-Covid levels by September as pent-up travel demand is unleashed amid eased virus curbs.

Korean Air currently operates one-third of the 120 international flights it offered before the pandemic hit the airline industry in early 2020, reports Yonhap News Agency.

Starting July, Korean Air will resume some international routes to the US, Europe, Japan and Southeast Asia while expanding the number of flights on those routes, the company said in a statement.

The carrier was originally planning to restore the number of its international flights to 50 per cent of the 2019 level by the end of 2022 in line with the government's flight restoration plans.

In April, the Transport Ministry announced it will help local airlines restore the number of inbound and outbound flights to 50 per cent of the 2019 level by the year's end.

If the flight restoration goes as planned, the number of the country's overall international flights will reach 2,420 a week, or 51 per cent of the 2019 level, in November, the Ministry said.

The carrier plans to inject the A380 superjumbo into routes to New York, Hong Kong, and Japan from July to absorb rising travel demand.