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Manado might not ring a bell.
It sits at the northern tip of Sulawesi in Indonesia and is well known among divers and snorkellers.

Eastar Jet has switched its Seoul Incheon–Manado route to scheduled service from September.
When it launched last October it was a charter, with tour operators buying up every seat. Now anyone can book directly on Eastar’s website or app.

Eastar Jet Boeing 737 MAX 8 taxiing at Incheon Airport
Eastar Jet Boeing 737 MAX 8 (HL8717) at Incheon, June 2026. Photo: S5A-0043 / CC BY 4.0

What changed

Item Details
Type of service Charter → scheduled
Frequency 7 a week, daily
Booking Tour packages only → direct booking on website and app
Load factor About 93% on average, May to September this year (per Eastar Jet)

Eastar received traffic rights for the route from Korea’s transport ministry in April and has been preparing the switch since.
It was the first Korean airline to fly Incheon–Manado and is still the only one. (As reported by Economy Science, Seoul Economic Daily and others.)

Timetable

Route Departs
Incheon → Manado 20:25
Manado → Incheon 02:20 (local)

Flying time is about 5 hours 30 minutes.
Manado is an hour behind Korea, so by that math the outbound lands after midnight local time and the return reaches Incheon in the morning.
Check the exact arrival times on the booking screen.

With a middle-of-the-night arrival, book a first-night hotel that offers airport pickup.
The return leaves at 2 am, so you also need to fill the last evening.
It is worth asking your hotel about late checkout in advance.

Fares

To mark the switch, a sale opened at 2 pm on September 22.
One-way fares with free checked baggage start at ₩168,100, and there is a prize draw for local hotel stays and activity passes.

Sale seats are limited, so prices vary by date.
The fuel surcharge went up for tickets issued from October 1, so check the final total before paying. (fuel surcharge post)

What to do in Manado

Coral reef and shoals of tropical fish at Bunaken Marine Park
Coral reef at Bunaken National Marine Park, July 2008. Photo: Sakurai Midori / CC BY-SA 3.0

The big draw is Bunaken National Marine Park.
According to Eastar, around 400 species of coral and fish live there.
The usual plan is a boat out from the city for snorkelling or diving.

Away from the sea there is trekking on Mount Mahawu and Tangkoko National Park.
Tangkoko is known for tarsiers, among the smallest primates in the world.
The average temperature is around 26°C all year, which makes it a good escape from the Korean winter.

Wide-eyed tarsier clinging to a branch
Tarsier in Tangkoko Batuangus Nature Reserve, April 2016. Photo: Riefza Vebriansyah / CC BY-SA 4.0

Entering Indonesia

South Korean passport holders cannot enter Indonesia visa-free. You need a visa on arrival (VOA).

Item Details
VOA fee IDR 500,000
Stay 30 days
Getting it in advance Apply online for an electronic visa on arrival (e-VOA) before you fly
Arrival card Free on All Indonesia (allindonesia.imigrasi.go.id), from 72 hours before arrival

The paper arrival card has been replaced by the All Indonesia online declaration.
It covers customs too, and you can apply for the e-VOA in the same process.

Rather than queueing at the airport in the middle of the night, get the e-VOA before you leave.
Apply only on the official Indonesian immigration site (an imigrasi.go.id address). Plenty of look-alike agency sites show up in search results and charge extra.

Your passport also needs at least six months of validity left.

Sources: Economy Science – Incheon–Manado goes scheduled · Seoul Economic Daily · Digital Daily · Korean Embassy in Indonesia – visas and entry · All Indonesia
Checked: September 26, 2026

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