Incheon Int'l Airport draws record-high passengers in 2019

By Jun Ji-hye

Incheon International Airport achieved a record-breaking performance in 2019 with the number of international passengers using the airport exceeding 70 million for the first time, despite unfavorable conditions such as strained Korea-Japan relations and public protests in Hong Kong, the operator of the airport said Thursday.

Koo Bon-hwan, president & CEO of Incheon International Airport Corp.

Incheon International Airport Corp. (IIAC) said the number of passengers that used Korea-China and Korea-Southeast Asia routes has significantly increased, offsetting a decrease in the number of passengers using Korea-Japan routes.

The IIAC noted its 2019 sales are also expected to have reached an annual record high of 2.77 trillion won ($2.4 billion), up 4.4 percent from a year earlier. The annual operating profit has been estimated at 1.3 trillion won, up 2 percent year-on-year.

“The number of passengers who used the airport reached 71.17 million in 2019, up 4.3 percent from a year earlier. Of those, 70.58 million were international passengers,” Kim Young-sik, an executive director at the IIAC, said during a media briefing.

“Incheon International Airport is expected to take the fifth position in terms of the number of international passengers for the second consecutive year, beating Singapore's Changi Airport and others.”

The number of passengers for Korea-Japan routes decreased by 11.7 percent in 2019 from a year earlier amid a nationwide boycott of trips to Japan after Japan imposed harsh restrictions on exports of key industrial materials to Korea in July.

But those using Korea-China and Korea-Southeast Asia operations increased by 11.9 percent and 11.7 percent, respectively.

Kim offered a further positive outlook that the airport will be able to attract more international passengers if Chinese President Xi Jinping agrees with President Moon Jae-in to end Beijing's economic retaliation against Seoul during their envisioned summit in Seoul this year.

As part of its retaliation over Korea's deployment of the U.S.-Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) anti-missile system, the Chinese government banned group tours to Korea in 2017, hitting the domestic tourism industry hard.

Kim added that the airport will introduce more intelligent robots and self-driving vehicles this year to improve services for pregnant women, those with children and the elderly.

The airport is also planning to install hydrogen refueling stations at Terminal 1 and 2, and replace aging shuttle buses with hydrogen buses.