Understaffed immigration area at Incheon airport causes inconveniences for some travelers

Foreign travelers wait in line at the immigtration area at the Incheon International Airport’s Terminal 1 last month after arriving in Korea. Courtesy of a reader

The surge in foreign visitors to Korea has put growing strain on arrival procedures at Incheon International Airport, prompting calls for more immigration officers on the ground.

According to a briefing released Sunday by the Ministry of Justice and Incheon International Airport, processing times for foreign nationals entering Korea stretched to as long as one hour and 54 minutes during the Lunar New Year holiday from Feb. 16 to 18.

That was nearly double the roughly one-hour wait recorded during last year’s Chuseok holiday in October. The International Civil Aviation Organization, meanwhile, recommends that arrival procedures take no longer than 45 minutes.

As delays lengthen, frustration has been spilling onto the airport’s online boards and social media, where travelers have complained about long lines at arrivals. One French traveler who arrived early last month said it took two hours to collect his luggage after landing at Incheon.

“I even missed the bus I had booked. The customer service desk only told me it was because of heavy weekend crowds,” he wrote.

Another traveler said clearing arrivals took two hours, adding that only two officers were on duty at the immigration counters.

The prolonged delays appear to be driven by two factors: a reduced number of staff at entry checkpoints and a steady rise in the number of foreign visitors arriving in Korea.

Foreign arrivals to Korea reached 3.26 million from January to March, up 16.4 percent from a year earlier. Compared with 2020, when arrivals stood at 1.89 million, the figure marks a 72.5 percent increase.

Over the same period, however, the personnel quota for the justice ministry’s Incheon Airport Immigration office fell from 891 in 2020 to 854 in 2026.

Suitcases fill a conveyor belt in the baggage claim area at Incheon International Airport’s Terminal 1 last month after some arriving foreign travelers were unable to collect them while waiting to clear immigration. Courtesy of a reader

Meanwhile, immigration checkpoints at Incheon International Airport are reportedly operating at less than half their full capacity, even during peak arrival periods. At Terminal 2, for instance, only 22 or 23 of 52 checkpoints were staffed in October and November last year, when foreign visitor traffic was high.

Given that the staffed checkpoints are further split between Korean nationals and foreign passport holders, with additional personnel assigned to automated clearance gates, the number of officers available at immigration desks for foreign arrivals effectively falls to just five or six.

"Despite the opening of a new terminal and a rise in visitor numbers, the staffing levels have remained unchanged," said the Incheon Airport immigration office.

It reportedly requested 276 additional personnel from the Interior Ministry last year, but only six were approved. Airport insiders cited budget constraints as well as a hesitant, if not outright negative, response to the idea of expanding airport staffing in the postpandemic period.

Limitations of automation measures

Instead of filling vacant positions, the Ministry of Justice has been pushing automation measures. It has announced plans to expand the number of countries eligible for automated immigration clearance gates from the current 18 to 42, while also automating the registration of facial and fingerprint data in a bid to reduce arrival processing times.

However, some observers question how much these measures will actually shorten arrival wait times.

For instance, automated immigration clearance gates are only open to travelers age 17 and older, leaving families with children no choice but to use manned checkpoints. Likewise, unmanned kiosks for advance facial and fingerprint registration may do little to ease congestion if travelers still have to stand in line twice — once for registration and again for the automated clearance gates.

“Airport services are failing to keep pace with the massive influx of overseas visitors,” the industry insider said.

“But beyond introducing unmanned terminals, authorities also need to staff frontline immigration officers at levels that reflect actual conditions.”

This article from the Hankook Ilbo, the sister publication of The Korea Times, is translated by a generative AI system and edited by The Korea Times.