Early Arrival Becomes the Norm: "Let’s Introduce One-Stop Processes and Relief Airports"[Incheon Airport’s “World No. 1” Exposed]③

Three Experts' Proposals to Ease Congestion at Incheon Airport

Even after mobilizing all available resources, including the Phase 4 construction and additional staffing, Incheon International Airport failed to avoid a "congestion crisis" during the Lunar New Year holiday. Despite a quantitative push through facility expansion and fully operating security screening, waiting times did not decrease, leading analysts to conclude that the operating system has reached a critical threshold. Experts are urging the authorities to move beyond temporary stopgaps such as advising passengers to arrive early, and instead to adopt more practical and structural measures, including flexible staffing during peak hours and strengthening the international flight functions of Gimpo and Cheongju Airports.

"Passengers must take out their passports again even with Smart Pass... urgent need for inter-agency data sharing"

Lee Heejeong, Deputy Director of the Institute for Aerospace Industry-Academia Convergence and former Vice President of Incheon International Airport, pointed out that the number of passengers during this holiday period reached an average of about 230,000 per day, and emphasized "seamless" integration of operating software rather than hardware. He noted that hardware preparations have already been completed, with all security screening equipment replaced with new CT X-ray machines, and stressed that what is now needed is further development of software that can make full use of the equipment already in place.

Lee cited the low utilization of the smart systems currently introduced at Incheon Airport and the fragmentation between government ministries as the biggest problems. For example, even if passengers use the facial recognition system "Smart Pass" to quickly enter the departure area, they still have to take out their passports again at the Ministry of Justice’s immigration inspection counters. This is because Smart Pass is a system managed by Incheon Airport and its data is not linked with the immigration counters.

Lee said, "Incheon Airport, the Ministry of Justice, and airlines need to share data and build a one-stop process in which a single facial recognition leads all the way to boarding the aircraft," adding, "Only by integrating the data held by government and public institutions to minimize passenger procedures can we provide a system that is appropriate for the era of artificial intelligence (AI)."

He also argued that a flexible response system tailored to "peak time" is essential for improving airport operating efficiency. At Incheon Airport, the departure area is most crowded between 6 a.m. and 9 a.m., while the arrival area is most congested between 4 p.m. and 5 p.m. This is because the slots (takeoff and landing times) of Korean carriers are heavily concentrated in these time bands.

Lee said, "With the introduction of CT X-ray, the speed of security screening has increased, but in many cases the operating hours of the Ministry of Justice’s inspection counters that should back this up are limited," and emphasized, "Personnel and systems must be intensively deployed so that security screening areas and inspection counters can be physically operated at full capacity, and the opening hours of the Ministry of Justice’s counters must be significantly expanded so that the entire system can function in a coordinated manner." He added, "Currently, the operating rate of airport smart services such as self check-in and smart bag drop is only around 10% to 15%, and promoting these services so that more passengers use them could also help alleviate congestion."

"Relief airports" needed to disperse Incheon Airport’s load

Kim Gwangil, a professor in the Department of Flight Operation at Silla University and an aviation expert, noted that although Incheon Airport continues to rank at the top in global airport service evaluations, the level of congestion actually felt by users has already reached a critical point. He pointed out that even in off-peak periods, not only during peak seasons, long waits for security screening and other procedures are common, and suggested that introducing U.S.-style "relief (secondary) airports" and adopting a dual-operation model is an urgent task.

Professor Kim said, "When I departed for the United States last month, it took 1 hour and 12 minutes just to pass through the security checkpoint and enter the departure area," criticizing that "during peak seasons, waits of three to four hours are far from unusual."

As a solution, he proposed strengthening the international flight function of Gimpo Airport. Currently, more than 90% of Gimpo’s operations are domestic flights, and he argued that Gimpo should be used as a "relief pitcher" to disperse the load on Incheon Airport. Professor Kim explained, "While maintaining Incheon Airport’s hub strategy, if some short-haul routes, such as to Japan or China, are transferred to Gimpo, congestion can be dramatically reduced."

In particular, Gimpo Airport is already regarded as an optimal alternative because it has excellent surrounding infrastructure and high accessibility to Incheon Airport. Professor Kim believes that simply adding more runways at Incheon Airport will not be enough to handle the explosive growth in demand.

Dispersing demand through regional airports was also cited as a major task. The idea is to activate airports such as Gimhae and Cheongju so that regional passengers do not need to travel all the way to Incheon.

Professor Kim stressed, "The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport needs to make a policy decision to guide new slots not only to Incheon but also to regional airports," adding, "Public officials must read on-the-ground trends and seriously consider a dual structure for airport operations."

"Instead of new airports, expanding a third civilian-only runway at Cheongju Airport is the solution"

As a key measure to disperse the load on Incheon Airport, Professor Lee Geunyeong of the Department of Flight Operation at Korea National University of Transportation is focusing on Cheongju Airport. Building new airports currently being promoted in locations such as Gadeokdo, Daegu, and Gwangju would each require at least 10 years and more than 10 trillion won in massive funding. By contrast, he argues, Cheongju Airport could deliver sufficient dispersal effects simply by adding one more civilian-only runway.

Professor Lee explains that adding one more runway at Cheongju Airport would be possible with a budget of around 2 trillion won. He said, "Cheongju Airport has the geographical advantage of being very close to the Seoul metropolitan area," and explained, "Expanding an existing airport can drastically reduce costs compared with new construction, while producing results much more quickly."

In the end, he suggests that, alongside smarter operational efficiency at Incheon Airport, a dual strategy must be pursued to develop Cheongju Airport into a "second gateway to the Seoul metropolitan area." Professor Lee added, "To smartly disperse the nation’s overall air travel demand, it is time for a policy decision on expanding the runway at Cheongju Airport, which offers both cost-effectiveness and accessibility."

Regarding the current operating model at Incheon Airport, Professor Lee diagnosed that "with capacity already close to its maximum, the airport has failed to resolve the structural problem of flights being concentrated during peak time slots." He particularly emphasized that, rather than improving congestion, the airport’s practice of urging passengers to arrive earlier only lengthens their stay and in fact exacerbates congestion.

Professor Lee said, "For example, there needs to be an operating model that sets concrete targets such as 20 minutes for departure procedures and 10 minutes for arrival, and immediately deploys additional Ministry of Justice, customs, and security screening personnel flexibly whenever these limits are exceeded," stressing that "the core of a smart airport is how flexibly it can operate security checkpoints and immigration control gates where bottlenecks occur."