South Korea’s main gateway Incheon International Airport vows to increase the number of airlines in operation to 110 by 2020 and attract more transit passengers through the upgrade of its services and infrastructure, the Korean government said on Monday.

According to the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, the Incheon International Airport Corp. (IIAC) will actively invite not only local airlines but also foreign airlines to service at the airport to increase the number of airlines in operation from 90 in 2015 to 110 by 2020. It will also reduce the time on the departure process to less than 40 minutes by implementing cutting-edge technologies such as mobile and portable check-in counters.

As part of measures to enhance its competitiveness and become a Northeast Asian transportation hub, the ministry has also decided to start talks with China that is expected to become the world’s largest air transport market in 2029 about the liberalization of aviation policy in the first half of this year. In addition, the ministry plans to start negotiations to expand routes with India and Iran with a high growth potential.

Moreover, IIAC will increase the number of passengers who transfer within 24 hours from the current 7.42 million to 10 million by 2020 and who stay less then 72 hours to 550,000 by developing various shopping and tourism programs. The ministry predicts such efforts would create added value worth about 1.18 trillion won. It will also cut landing charges for flights at night, expand late-night shuttle buses and operate around-the-clock duty-free shops to increase the number of passengers arriving at night from current 5,000 per day to 20,000 by 2020.

The ministry will also open a capsule hotel for the convenience of transit passengers for the first time at Incheon International Airport. A capsule hotel is a type of hotel developed in Japan that features a large number of extremely small rooms intended to provide cheap, basic overnight accommodation for guests. Sheraton Grande Walkerhill Hotel would be in charge of the operation. The ministry is pushing ahead with the installment of a 67-room capsule hotel at the airport.

By Chun Jung-hong

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