Asiana Airlines Inc., South Korea's second-biggest carrier, said Monday it will resume flights to Guam late next month to preemptively respond to pent-up travel demand amid rising vaccinations and eased virus curbs.

Asiana plans to run a 188-seat A321NEO plane and operate two flights a week on the Incheon-Guam route from Dec. 23, the company said in a statement.

"The company decided to reopen the Guam route after 18 years, as it has a couple of destinations to fly at the moment due to a prolonged COVID-19 pandemic," a company spokesman said over the phone.

Those who have passed two weeks since their second round of vaccinations and submit negative polymerase chain reaction test results will be exempt from the mandatory self-isolation in Guam, it said.

The carrier currently operates four flights a week from Incheon to Singapore and plans to add one flight on the route from Dec. 1.

Korea and Singapore recently signed a travel bubble agreement, which refers to a quarantine-free travel partnership between two or more cities or countries with similar levels of COVID-19 cases. 

In July, the carrier resumed flights to Saipan under the travel bubble agreement. (Yonhap)