[THE VIEW]The Price Tag of Zero Non-Regular Workers at Incheon Airport

A Peak Demand System Undermined by the Pursuit of Employment Stability
Passengers Bear the Cost of Employment Policy

Recently, every time I go to Incheon Airport, it has become common to wait two to three hours for security screening and immigration during holidays or in the morning. It is not unusual for people to miss their flights. People leave home even earlier for early morning flights, run through the airport, and find themselves frustrated as the lines barely move even as the boarding deadline approaches. Security screening is a vital national security function, but for passengers, it is clearly a service. Excessive delays and waiting times go beyond simple inconvenience and signify a clear failure in airport operations.

One of the causes of such failures in Incheon Airport's operational system can be traced to the excessive shift toward subsidiary-centered direct employment. In industries like airports, where demand fluctuates dramatically, employment flexibility is essential. However, since 2020, Incheon Airport has minimized outsourcing and service contracts, opting instead for a direct employment system centered on subsidiaries. While some short-term contracts remain, the overall shift toward regularizing security screening staff has led directly to weakened competition. The burden of direct employment translates into higher costs, which means the labor pool is always tight. Responding to peak demand through outsourcing and non-regular positions is necessary, but even this is now difficult.

At this point, the example of Singapore's Changi Airport offers significant insight. Singapore neither bans outsourcing nor clings to direct or permanent employment. Instead, it institutionally enforces a structure where skills are accumulated regardless of who employs the staff, thereby maintaining operational quality. For security personnel, minimum base salaries and training requirements are mandated by job grade, and these are tied to licensing conditions. In other words, Singapore does not allow outsourcing to devolve into a system of cheap, easily replaced labor, but instead raises the baseline across the entire industry to ensure operational stability. In contrast, Incheon Airport has, to some extent, replaced problem-solving with a narrative that emphasizes the stability of permanent employment and pushes for direct hiring.

Incheon Airport Passenger Terminal Overview. The Asia Business Daily DB

So, what is the solution? The answer lies in designing the system to ensure flexibility. The core issue is not whether to use outsourcing, but how to structure outsourcing so that it does not undermine service quality. Outsourcing must not become entrenched as a low-wage, low-quality system. For example, as seen in Australia or Singapore, core work should be handled through multi-year contracts, with continuous monitoring of operational quality to raise the standard of outsourcing itself and ensure a certain level of job stability for outsourced employees. It is also important to design institutional mechanisms or incentives that allow outsourced staff to accumulate professional skills. In addition, new technologies should be used to buffer workforce challenges. Of course, Incheon Airport has announced a roadmap for introducing AI and 3D scanners, but the pace of actual implementation in operations remains slow. There is a need to expand and integrate these technologies more quickly and broadly into airport operations.

When airport operations are explained solely through slogans like 'conversion to permanent positions' or 'respect for unions,' the system itself does not function properly. Outsourcing and contracting are not inherently good or evil; they are operational choices. If well-designed, they can improve quality, absorb peak demand, and enable stable operations. Conversely, if only direct and permanent employment are pursued under the assumption that outsourcing is bad, the organization becomes rigid and adjustment costs rise. Therefore, policy success cannot be measured solely by an increase in permanent jobs. The key is not the unification of employment types, but the creation of a system that ensures stable operations even when diverse forms of employment coexist. Labor rights and respect are important, but airport operations cannot run on those alone. Peaks occur every year, passenger numbers increase, and flights are concentrated in the early morning hours. What is needed is not a political slogan about permanent or non-permanent positions, but the design of a workforce pool that can withstand peak periods and the assurance of employment flexibility.

Kyung Nayoung, Professor of Computer Science, National University of Singapore