Incheon Airport’s cumulative passengers surpass 800 mn

Incheon International Airport, which opened in 2001, has surpassed a cumulative total of 800 million passengers.

Incheon International Airport Corporation announced on Wednesday that a passenger named A, who departed for the US on Asiana Airlines flight OZ 202 from Incheon, became the 800 millionth passenger to use Incheon Airport. The lucky winner received a golden key and a round-trip air ticket as a gift.

Incheon Airport, which opened on Mar. 29, 2001, welcomed its 800 millionth passenger after 22 years and 7 months. It took 4 years and 7 months to reach the first 100 million passengers since the opening of the airport. However, the pace of setting new records for cumulative passenger numbers in 100 million-unit increments has accelerated as demand for air travel has grown rapidly.

Due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, air travel demand significantly decreased. It took 4 years and 2 months to achieve 8 billion cumulative passengers from 7 billion passengers due to the sharp decline in air travel demand, with annual passenger numbers in 2021 decreasing by 95% compared to 2019.

Incheon Airport views the achievement of 800 million cumulative passengers as a symbol of overcoming the COVID-19 crisis and normalizing airport operations.

According to Incheon Airport, as of August this year, passenger numbers have recovered to 71% of the level seen during the same period in 2019, with 35,226,212 passengers compared to 48,181,344 passengers in 2019.

The corporation predicts that annual passenger numbers for this year will reach around 54 million to 57 million, which is about 77-81% of the 2019 level, reflecting the trend of recovering passenger demand.

Write to Mi-Kyoung Lee at capital@hankyung.com