The ministry attributed the increase mainly to a surge in the number of visitors from China and that of South Korean travellers abroad during the Lunar New Year holiday.
The figure represents a rise of 7.3 percent from 3.75 million tallied in the same month of last year. The comparable figure stood at 3.31 million in February 2011 and 3.05 million in February 2010.
By region, routes to and from China posted the highest increase rate of 19.5 percent over the cited period, followed by Oceania with 18.1 percent, Southeast Asia with 7.8 percent and Europe with 5.1 percent.
However, air passenger traffic to and from Japan and North America decreased 2 percent and 0.1 percent, respectively.
By Keat Min Woo
reporter
Park Sae-jin
swatchsjp@ajunews.com