Gimpo airport aims to turn into business-friendly travel hub

Bomi Yoon

Korea Airport Corp. (KAC) President and CEO Yoon Hyeong-jung speaks during a press conference at the KAC headquarters in Seoul, Thursday. Courtesy of KAC

Korea Airport Corp. (KAC) President and CEO Yoon Hyeong-jung speaks during a press conference at the KAC headquarters in Seoul, Thursday. Courtesy of KAC

By Lee Hae-rin

The Korea Airports Corp. (KAC) aims to transform Gimpo International Airport into a business-friendly Northeast Asian travel hub to accelerate a full recovery in passenger numbers from next year, the airport operator announced, Thursday.

“We plan to spur the recovery of international air travel demand by developing Gimpo airport into a ‘biz port’ and expect to reach sales of 1 trillion won ($767.2 million) next year,” KAC President Yoon Hyeong-jung said during a press conference at the company’s headquarters in Seoul.

By the first half of next year, the company plans to introduce fast-track services for business passengers flying domestically and on international flights, which will allow them to skip queues at immigration and security screening in order to expedite travel.

Additionally, the airport plans to introdmultipurposee lounge and coworking space for business travelers who need to work, hold conferences and welcome VIPs. The coworking space will also feature a multi-purpose room that can host events for K-pop fans who sometimes visit the airport.

KAC also plans to introduce a premium membership system to provide passengers who visit the airport frequently with special services at airport facilities, such as parking, commercial areas and lounge use. Changi and Istanbul international airports both have a similar membership rewards system.

Additionally, the airport will expand its biometric identification system to allow passengers to make payments at duty free shops with palm vein authentication, replacing the current system that requires boarding passes and passports.

In terms of operation, from January to November this year, the company saw 11.45 million international passengers in the seven international airports it operates across the country, which is 61.1 percent of the 18.73 million, from January to November in 2019, before the COVID-19 pandemic began. The total figure in 2019 including December was 20.3 million, a record high so far.

The KAC operates seven international airports: Gimpo, Gimhae, Jeju, Cheongju, Daegu, Muan and Yangyang.

The company expects to see a full recovery in the number of passengers to pre-pandemic levels next year, which is a year earlier than projections by the International Civil Aviation Organization and the International Air Transport Association.

Meanwhile, domestic air travel made an almost full recovery in terms of passengers with 60.7 million people compared to pre-pandemic levels in 2019.

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