For airlines and passengers alike, Incheon International Airport will be a welcome change from Kimpo Airport near Seoul. Kimpo is just 13 years old - it opened for the summer Olympics in 1988 - but it is crowded and offers only basic amenities.
Incheon will open on 29 March with two runways and an initial capacity of 27 million passengers and 1.7 million tonnes of cargo a year. It will be expandable to five runways, 100 million passengers and 7 million tonnes of cargo. Unlike Kimpo, which is closed from 23.00 to 06.00, Incheon will be open round the clock and it has enough space to allow airlines to construct their own cargo, maintenance and other facilities. Check-in counters and airline slots will increase accordingly: Korean Air plans to use 1.5 times more check-in gates per flight at Incheon than at Kimpo.
Built on an artificial island 60km (40 miles) from Seoul, Incheon has no noise restrictions. Wind direction is constant 98% of the time and it gets 30% less fog than Kimpo. Runway separation is 414m (1,360ft), allowing simultaneous take-offs. When a third runway is complete, the 2,075m separation will allow simultaneous take-offs and landings. Category IIIa equipment allows take-offs in 200m visibility, while Kimpo has Category III equipment, which requires 300mvisibility.
Incheon's $1.2 billion, 1.3 million km2 (496,000 miles2) terminal is the second biggest in Asia, dwarfing the 622,000km2 terminal at Kuala Lumpur and the 780,000km2 terminal at Kansai; only Hong Kong's 1.4 million km2 terminal is larger. The Incheon terminal has floor-to-ceiling windows, roomy departure lounges and valet parking. Each gate at Incheon has two boarding bridges, compared with the single bridges at Kimpo.
Transit facilities include a 90-room hotel, 51 internet kiosks, child and baby care centres, four transit lounges, five smoking lounges, 18 information booths, 43 food and beverage shops, 17 money changers, 42 retail outlets, three business centres and three pharmacies.
Shopping is abundant as well. Four companies have acquired duty-free space, creating price competition, and a mall has been incorporated within the facility. "Some airports have hotels and major shopping malls next to their airport building, so we are developing the hotel and shopping mall within the airport facility area to attract passengers," says Dong-Suk Kang, chairman and chief executive of Incheon International Airport.
Initially, Incheon will not be able to process passengers as quickly as Kimpo, which is highly efficient during off-peak hours. In the first year, Incheon will attempt to unload a full Boeing 747 within 45min - from leaving the aircraft to leaving the airport - which is within International Civil Aviation Organisation recommendations. By the second year, it hopes to reduce unloading time to 30min. Kimpo can pull off the feat in 20min during off-peak hours, although during rush hour the process can take up to 1h.
Kimpo will become a domestic airport, while Incheon will host a small number of domestic flights to and from Pusan, Kwangju and Cheju Island. This is similar to the set-ups in Tokyo and Taipei, where busy downtown airports handle most of the domestic traffic.
Incheon's biggest drawback is its distance from Seoul. From the city centre, the new airport will take about 30min longer to reach than Kimpo. A new expressway runs from the outskirts of Seoul to the new airport, but getting to it will be a problem, as all airport-bound cars and trucks converge onto the same crowded streets. Once on the expressway, the trip to Incheon should be uneventful. The 42km highway is six to eight lanes wide and the toll is $6 per car.
Next to the expressway is a strip of land that will one day accommodate the airport train. Like the expressway, the train will be financed and built by a private company. By 2005, if all goes as planned, the train will run from Incheon to Kimpo, and by 2007 it will extend to downtown Seoul station, a 40min trip from the airport. The South Korean Government has acquired the land for the 61km railway and now seeks Build-Operate-Transfer investors.
Given South Korea's depressed economy, it seems unlikely that any private company will build the $2.9 billion train. The expressway is fast and cheap, and airport parking is abundant. A similar situation exists at Hong Kong's Chek Lap Kok Airport, where people prefer to take cars and buses rather than the Airport Express train, which has struggled to attract passengers. The South Korean Government is already financing 40% of the airport, and is unlikely to pay for the rail link.
South Korea's aviation industry is focused on the 29 March opening date. They hope to avoid the teething problems suffered by Kuala Lumpur International Airport, which struggled with its computer network, flight information and baggage handling systems, and Chek Lap Kok, which suffered an expensive mistake that stranded baggage and left perishable cargo rotting on the tarmac.
"One of the major problems in Hong Kong was their cargo terminal," says Kang. "But Hong Kong has only one single cargo terminal building and we have three separate cargo terminal buildings: one for Korean Air, one for Asiana, and one for foreign carriers. This will reduce the problems."
Incheon has completed five aircraft test operations, with full passenger and baggage loads, and the airport has back-ups for each system, says Kang. "I have thoroughly reviewed all the opening problems in Hong Kong airport's case, and we can summarise the reasons as lack of training, and lack of familiarisation with new operating environment."
Korean Air, which accounts for about 45% of Kimpo's traffic, faces the biggest challenge. Its fleet is now divided between domestic and international operations, and will have to be separated into two fleets. On the opening date, Korean Air will relocate about 50 aircraft, while Asiana and Korean Air will combine to move about 100 trucks.
"The step training programme is the key," says Moon H Han, Korean Air managing vice-president of airport projects. "Our staff can get accustomed to the new environment and new systems. Number 2 is the maximum full-load trial of each system. That's what we learned from the airports in Hong Kong and Kuala Lumpur. We talk about them almost every day."
Source: Flight International
