South Korea's international passenger traffic spiked 12.4 percent from a year earlier in October amid a steady rise in passengers to and from China, the transportation ministry said Monday.

Air passengers to and from the country came to 6,301,828 in October, compared with 5,605,199 in the same month last year, according to the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport.

The country's overall air passenger traffic surged 9.7 percent to some 9.15 million as domestic air passengers gained 4 percent on-year to 2.85 million.

The sharp increase in international passenger traffic was partly attributed to a 23.1 percent jump in passengers between the country and Japan.

Air passengers to and from Southeast Asian countries also spiked 17.8 percent on-year to nearly 2.08 million, while passengers to and from China gained 3.4 percent to nearly 1.7 million.

Low cost carriers continued to expand their market share, with 1.3 million air passengers to and from the country using flights operated by the country's five budget carriers, marking a 55.8 percent surge from a year earlier.

Their combined market share also surged to 21 percent from 15.2 percent in October 2015.

The two largest South Korean flag carriers -- Korean Air and Asiana Airlines -- saw their combined market share dwindle from 48.6 percent to 44.3 percent over the cited period.

Amid a steady advance by South Korean budget carriers, the combined market share of foreign airlines also shrank to 34.7 percent from 36.2 percent, according to the ministry.

In October, the country's international air cargo traffic jumped 10.4 percent on-year to some 350,000 tons.

In the first 10 months of the year, South Korea's international air passenger traffic came to a little over 60.9 million, up 20.2 percent from the same period last year.

Domestic air passenger traffic surged 11.4 percent to 25.9 million over the cited period, with international air cargo traffic gaining 6.6 percent on-year to 3.1 million tons. (Yonhap)