The airport, which serves South Korea’s capital Seoul and was ranked the world’s second-best behind Singapore’s Changi in the 2026 Skytrax World Airport Awards, is bracing for one of its busiest summer travel seasons on record, expecting 3.77 million passengers between July 25 and Sept. 10, or about 222,000 travelers a day, The Korea Herald reported.
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People wait to check in at Incheon International Airport in South Korea, 2022. Photo by Reuters |
The influx has led to significant delays at immigration checkpoints, which has been compounded by staffing shortages.
The Ministry of Justice plans to add 141 positions to the Incheon Airport Immigration Office this month, increasing its authorized workforce to 994.
However, officials said the newly recruited staff will need training before taking up frontline inspection duties, meaning the additional hires are unlikely to provide immediate relief.
Until then, immigration authorities will maximize the number of inspection booths operating during peak arrival periods by temporarily deploying personnel from support departments.
Airport officials have also introduced temporary measures to improve passenger flow during the summer travel season.
These include expanding waiting areas in Terminal 2’s arrivals hall, installing additional multilingual wayfinding signs and information kiosks on the third floor of Terminal 1, increasing the number of Smart Pass lanes for departing passengers, and opening major security checkpoints 30 minutes earlier than usual.
Airport officials said the congestion is partly driven by seasonal travel patterns, as overseas trips by South Koreans are typically concentrated around the Lunar New Year and Chuseok holidays, while foreign visitor arrivals peak during the summer vacation season, The Korea Times reported.
South Korea welcomed 11.05 million foreign visitors in the first half of the year, a 20.6% increase from the same period last year, according to the Ministry of Justice.
Arrivals are expected to accelerate further in July and August, traditionally the country’s busiest season for inbound tourism.
Incheon recorded 19.78 million international passengers during the January-March period, making it the busiest among 1,234 international airports globally, South Korrea’s Chosun Daily reported, citing data from the Airports Council International (ACI).