South Korea and Japan resumed flights between Seoul's Gimpo and Tokyo's Haneda airports on Wednesday after a little over two years.

The Korea Airports Corporation said the route reopened with an Asiana Airlines flight departing from Gimpo at 8:40 a.m. and a Korean Air flight departing 20 minutes later.

The two carriers will each operate Gimpo-Haneda flights twice a week on Wednesday and Saturday. Japan Airlines and All Nippon Airways will also operate such flights two times a week.

With the resumption of the flights, facilities at Gimpo Airport also restarted operations, including the international flight terminals and duty free shops.

Flights on the Gimpo-Haneda route were suspended in March 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The route, which began operations in 2003, is considered symbolic of bilateral exchanges between South Korea and Japan. Before the pandemic, some two million passengers used the route each year.