AKIPRESS.COM - South Korea and Uzbekistan have agreed to increase the number of flights between the two countries to meet growing travel demand, the Yonhap news reported with reference to the transport ministry.

The two countries held aviation talks in Tashkent from Wednesday to Thursday to discuss increasing the number of flights to 10 a week from the current eight, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport said in a statement.

"As the Uzbekistan government began to allow a visa-free travel for foreigners from South Korea and six other countries in February, there has been an increase in travel demand to the central Asian country," a ministry official said by phone.

The six countries are Japan, Turkey, Israel, Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore, she said.

The number of passengers on the route grew an average of 10.3 percent annually in the past three years but there have been no flights on Thursdays or Saturdays, the statement said.

A total of 226,353 passengers traveled on the route in 2017, jumping from 196,175 in 2016 and 186,554 in 2015, it said.