Asiana Airlines, Korea’s second-largest air carrier, marked an annual record for the second consecutive year with more than 10 million international passengers, the company announced Sunday.

Asiana expects the number to reach 10.64 million by the end of December, a 2.3 percent increase from the last year’s record.

Passenger traffic has been showing a fast recovery after the global financial crisis in 2008-2009. After two years of passenger number decreases, the number of passengers rose 21.5 percent in 2010.

Adding to the trend, this year’s figure was supported by higher demand in international flights to China and long-distance regions such as Europe and North America.

The company saw the largest passenger volume in August with 1.03 million people flying on international routes. Among them were 300,000 people traveling between China and Korea, a 7.4 percent increase from the same period last year.

In a bid to keep up with the increasing demand, the airline plans to run up to 10 more aircraft and open up more long-distance routes next year.

By Monica Suk (monicasuk@heraldcorp.com)