Airport Jammed with Travelers as Summer Season Reaches its Peak

10:00 a.m. on August 2, Passenger Terminal on second floor at Incheon Int’l Airport

The terminal was packed with thousands of people going on vacations abroad. The ticketing counters were full, and some 200 were waiting in a line before Gate 3. Inside there were still a lot of people, going through security inspection and departure immigration counters before getting aboard. People began to shout, “What takes so long.”

“I know many are going on summer vacations at this time of the year, but I just can’t understand we have to wait 2 to 3 hours to complete the proceedings,” said Kim, a 38-year-old man who is heading to China with his family for a 5-day and 4-night vacation.

It’s time for summer vacations and the U.S. greenback is losing its value. The number of travelers going abroad is increasing exponentially, delaying the check-ins and flight departure.

Outbound Travelers Surge

Through June this year, some 20,000 people left the country everyday through the international airport. The figure, however, started to rise sharply in July and soared to 30,000 a day on July 20 with the beginning of summer vacation season.

In particular, as the summer season reached its peak, the number have been around 34,500 since the 26th. On August 1, 42,895 travelers left the country, hitting a record high since the opening of the airport in April last year.

“With more people planning overseas trips, the surge is expected to continue through next week,” said an airport official. “If your are going abroad, you need to get the airport at least 3 hours before the departure.”

Flight Delays

Korean Airlines said that about 10 flights have had to delay departures everyday waiting for passengers to complete their proceedings since July 28. In particular, 31 out of 35 flights couldn’t take off as scheduled on August 1 as 14,096 flocked into its counter. Asiana Airline has also reported some 11 delays in departure everyday since July 28, with 16 flights delayed on August 1.

Foreign airliners are also facing the same problem. One Cathy Pacific flight of the two scheduled on August 1 was not able to take off on time. Japanese Airline also reported 2 or 3 delays a day especially between 11 a.m. and noon.

Reason for Delays

The main reason is that most outbound flights are scheduled around 10 to 12 in the morning and 4 to 7 in the afternoon, concentrating too many people at the certain hours of the day.

In particular, when one or two from a group of travelers show up late, the whole group waits until they come, causing a delay. There is a problem with inspection and departure immigration system, too.

Although the customs office has installed five defecting systems at every counter, it operates four at maximum having a small number of officials working at the site. The Immigration Office also operates about 100 of 120 reporting counters at best due to the lack of officers.

“We are supposed to take a 10-minute break every 40 to 50 minutes of work, but these days we are often stuck in the counter for more than 2 hours,” said one of officers. “As we hurry up to limit the time for a person to less than a minute, it is not easy to find counterfeited passports.”

Ho-Gab Lee gdt@donga.com