Taipei: Routine direct flights between Hualien and South Korea's Incheon International Airport will be suspended at the end of July, the Hualien County Tourism Department said Monday. According to Focus Taiwan, Yu Ming-hsun, head of the department, stated that the route's operator, South Korean low-cost carrier Aero K Airline Co., is moving its operating base to its headquarters in Cheongju, approximately 90 kilometers southeast of Seoul, due to increasing international fuel costs. As a result of this operational shift, the airline is required to reapply for traffic rights, a process anticipated to take about one flight season, Yu explained. He mentioned that the route is expected to resume at the end of October, with Cheongju replacing Incheon as the new destination. Yu acknowledged that the three-month suspension would impact tourism in Hualien. He noted that the county government had requested the airline to plan ahead to prevent the service gap, but the carrier had to adjust its operating strategy due to higher fuel costs and rapidly changing international conditions. The Hualien-Incheon route, featuring two round trips per week, was initiated in November 2025 after the county government and Aero K signed a memorandum of understanding, marking it as Hualien's second scheduled international route after the lifting of COVID-19 travel restrictions.