Hopes soar for new Korea airport

Incheon Airport will handle around 27 million passengers a year

By Caroline Gluck in Seoul

South Korea's new airport, Incheon International, has begun operations, aiming to become a transport hub for the North-east Asia region.

As Incheon airport opened for business, the message from the authorities was: so far so good

Apart from a few minor problems, the opening seems to have gone smoothly.

Incheon, about 60km from the capital, Seoul, replaces Kimpo airport as the international gateway to South Korea.

It will handle around 27 million passengers a year, but has capacity to carry up to a 100 million passengers by 2020.

Nervousness

As Incheon airport opened for business, the message from the authorities was: so far so good.

The only access to the airport is a toll highway

There was a great deal of nervousness beforehand, not helped by media predictions of possible flight delays and passenger chaos.

The main concern had been the computerised baggage-handling system, which had failed several times during testing.

The airport authorities decided to manually back up the system to ensure that everything went smoothly.

Signs at the airport warned passengers to be prepared for possible confusion and inconvenience in the initial phase of operation and asked for their understanding.

Praise

In the event, there were few glitches and passengers had high praise for the airport.

The computerised baggage-handling system had failed during testing

Extra staff are on stand-by for possible breakdowns, with the big test likely to be over the weekend period, when the heaviest traffic is expected.

The airport was built on reclaimed land between two islands off the Western port of Incheon and is able to operate 24 hours a day.

But one major criticism still persists - the high cost of travelling there from the capital, Seoul.

The only access to the airport is a toll highway. A cheaper rail link will not be finished for at least four more years.