[Anchor]

Today, September 23, just one day ahead of the Chuseok holiday, the number of vehicles heading out for their hometowns on expressways nationwide is rapidly increasing. Let's connect with our reporter stationed at the Seoul Tollgate.

Reporter Jeong Jiyeon, first, please give us an update on the current highway conditions.

[Reporter]

As a growing number of vehicles head for their hometowns starting a day before the holiday, congestion is building up on major expressways across the country.

If you depart from Seoul right now, it takes 5 hours and 50 minutes to get to Busan based on the tollgate here.

It is expected to take 4 hours and 40 minutes to Gwangju, and 2 hours and 50 minutes to Gangneung.

Let's look at the situation by checking CCTV footage of expressways in major sections.

First is the Seopyeongtaek Junction on the Seohaean Expressway.

You can see that the traffic flow toward Mokpo is not smooth.

Around the Jukjeon Service Area on the Gyeongbu Expressway, vehicles heading down to Busan gradually increased starting from 3:30 PM, making it difficult to pick up speed, but traffic has now smoothed out again.

[Anchor]

During this holiday period, when is traffic congestion expected to be at its worst?

[Reporter]

This year, traffic volumes for both returning to hometowns and coming back are expected to bunch up all at once due to the relatively short Chuseok holiday.

The Korea Expressway Corporation projected that the daily average traffic volume on expressways during this holiday will reach 6.05 million vehicles, an 11.8% increase from last year.

It forecasted that the trip to hometowns will be most congested tomorrow morning, and the return trip on the afternoon of September 25, the day of Chuseok.

[Anchor]

Many people must be leaving for overseas as well. What is the situation at the airport like?

[Reporter]

Incheon International Airport expects a total of 1.14 million passengers starting today through the Chuseok holiday period—the largest number of daily average passengers in any Chuseok holiday history.

In particular, on September 27, the last day of the holiday, about 247,000 people are expected, which is roughly 7.9% more than the peak congestion during last year's Chuseok holiday.

Incheon International Airport Corporation announced that it will implement special transportation measures during the holiday, such as opening major departure halls 30 minutes earlier and expanding the operation of self-check-in and self-bag-drop services.

(Live broadcast by Pyun Chan-hyeong | Video edited by Nam Il)