South Korea’s passenger flight services bound for overseas destinations will be significantly expanded from next month in conjunction with continued efforts to ease COVID-19 quarantine rules.

The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport said on Wednesday that it agreed with health authorities to push for a gradual recovery of international flight services, aiming to expand services to 50 percent of the 2019 level or more by year's end.

Under the plan, the normalization will be pursued in three steps, with the first step to be implemented in May and June, which will increase the number of regular international flights per week by 100 each month. The current level, 420 per week, is only eight-point-nine percent of the level prior to the onset of the pandemic.

During the second stage, from July, the number of regular international flights per week will grow by 300 every month. This will bring the number of international flight services to two-thousand-420 per week by November, or 51 percent of the 2019 level.

Under the third stage, when COVID-19 becomes an endemic, the government will aim for a full recovery of flights.