Sales at South Korea's transportation sector turned around to edge up 0.5 percent in 2015 from a year earlier on a rise in land transportation, storage and other transport services, government data showed Wednesday.

The combined sales of local transportation firms totaled 140.9 trillion won ($120.2 billion) last year, up from 140.2 trillion won tallied a year ago, according to the data compiled by Statistics Korea.

It marked the first on-year gain in three years as it logged a 0.9 percent fall in 2013 and a 0.1 percent drop in 2014.

Overland transportation companies saw their sales edge up 0.4 percent to 59.6 trillion won and storage and other transport services posted 22.4 trillion won in sales, up 7.2 percent from a year earlier, while sales of sea-based transportation fell 1.4 percent on-year to 37.9 trillion won and those of airborne transport retreated 2.3 percent to 21 trillion won.

Their operating costs amounted to 125.9 trillion won, down 1.1 percent from a year earlier, added the data.

The number of companies in the sector gained 0.2 percent on-year to 368,191 in 2015, with their employment reaching 1.1 million, up 1.7 percent on-year. (Yonhap)