The number of passengers using South Korean airports fell sharply last year due to the fallout from the new coronavirus outbreak, marking the first drop in 12 years, data showed.

The number of people using 15 airports across the nation came to 65 million last year, down 58.8 percent from a year earlier, according to the data compiled by Statistics Korea.

It was the first time that the number of airport passengers had declined since 2008, when the country was in the midst of the global financial crisis. At that time, the number of airport users fell 1.7 percent. (Yonhap)