Passengers using South Korea’s Incheon International Airport are being ordered to arrive six hours before their flight departure. (Image courtesy of Yonhap)
SEOUL, Feb. 11 (Korea Bizwire) — Travelers using South Korea’s Incheon International Airport are being advised to arrive up to six hours before their flights, highlighting the facility’s ongoing struggle with long queues despite recent multi-billion won upgrades. The issue came into sharp focus during the recent Lunar New Year holiday, when wait times reached new extremes.
Despite a 2.4 trillion won investment to expand Terminal 2 last December and hundreds of billions of won spent on advanced technologies like SmartPass and CT X-ray systems, passengers continue to face lengthy wait times. Some observers note that queues have actually worsened during recent holiday periods.
The International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) recommends 60 minutes for departure processing and 45 minutes for arrival. According to Incheon International Airport Corporation’s monitoring last year, actual processing times averaged 30 minutes 41 seconds for departures and 31 minutes 18 seconds for arrivals, seemingly beating ICAO guidelines by 30 and 14 minutes respectively. However, these figures differ drastically from real passenger experiences.
One traveler, an individual referred to only as A, arrived at the airport three hours early for a 9 a.m. flight to Tokyo during the Lunar New Year holiday. Despite registering for SmartPass, which eliminates the need to show boarding passes and passports through facial recognition, they spent over an hour in immigration processing. The long queues left them with no time for duty-free shopping, barely managing a quick meal before boarding.
The congestion is particularly severe during morning hours between 7 and 10 a.m., when about 34% of daily flights are concentrated. During December, an average of 59 flights per hour departed during the 8 to 11 a.m. window, totaling 177 flights out of 514 daily departures. By contrast, only 20 to 30 flights operate during off-peak hours between noon and 4 p.m., leaving terminals largely empty.
Staffing shortages compound the problem. The airport’s security screening operation is currently understaffed, with only 1,800 personnel out of an authorized 1,924 positions. To address this, the airport plans to add 110 new security staff this month and maintain a 7% reserve workforce for contingencies. During the holiday period, the airport also deployed 160 temporary workers, 15 administrative staff from its security subsidiary, and about 40 off-duty personnel.
An airport employee noted, “While security is paramount, managing queue times is also a fundamental responsibility,” adding that “seeing increased queues despite similar passenger numbers and advanced facilities indicates a problem.” They suggested that rather than simply adding staff during busy periods, the airport needs more flexible staffing and operational strategies that account for both peak and off-peak hours.
Airport officials acknowledge the concentration of flights during peak hours but also point to misconceptions about arrival times, noting that while most airlines open check-in counters three hours before departure, passengers are increasingly arriving four to six hours early, exacerbating congestion.
The airport authority and the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport plan to hold a discussion forum on February 13 to review and improve their response to holiday congestion.
Lina Jang (linajang@koreabizwire.com)
