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Aircraft takeoffs, landings to be halted for college entrance exam

All aircraft takeoffs and landings at South Korean airports will be suspended for 35 minutes on Thursday to prevent noise from affecting the nationwide university entrance exam.

The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport said Wednesday that takeoff and landing operations will be put on hold Thursday from 1:05 p.m. through 1:40 p.m.

"The move is to prevent aircraft noise from affecting the language listening part of the critical exam," the ministry said.

Some 69 scheduled flights will be readjusted because of the suspension with four domestic flights to be canceled for the day.

Of the 69 flights affected, 16 are with foreign carriers and the rest are planes operated by local airlines.

All other flights that are in the air must maintain an altitude exceeding 3 kilometers, and follow the direction of air traffic controllers, if they have to stay in a holding pattern before landing.

To minimize inconvenience, new flights will be arranged for canceled passenger services, the ministry said, adding it also asked people who booked flights in advance, to check with the airlines to see if their flights have been affected. (Yonhap)