A bird’s eyeview of the Incheon Int’l Airport when its 4th expansion project is completed in 2024.

A group of dignitaries led by Vice Minister Kim Kyung-wook of the Ministry of Land Infrastructure and Transportation, Mayor Park Nam-choon of Incheon, Rep. Ahn Sang-soo, and President Koo Bon-hwan of the Incheon In’l Airport Corp. are among some 1,000 people at a ceremony to kick-off the 4th expansion project for the airport on Nov. 19. (Photos:IIAC)

South Korea's Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport (MOLIT) announced the launch of the Incheon International Airport phase four expansion project, which is aimed at equipping the airport to handle up to 106 million passengers per year by 2024.

It will result in Seoul Incheon becoming the third largest airport worldwide by passenger handling capacity.

The project will require an estimated investment of 4.8 trillion won. Incheon International Airport Corp. (IIAC) has started construction on the 4.2 trillion won ($3.72 billion) fourth runway at Incheon Airport.

The latest investment in the fourth stage expansion will enable the Korean airport to support its growth plan and meet the increasing demand for air travel in the country.

IIAC said that investment forms part of the fourth stage expansion of the airport. It will also cover expansion of the second terminal, mooring and commuting facilities.

Once the fourth runway becomes operational by 2023, the airport will be able to manage 100 aircraft movements an hour.

The facility was built to replace Gimpo International Airport. It has been steadily increasing its facilities and capacities. Under the second stage of expansion, IIAC launched a new concourse in 2008, while a second terminal was constructed in 2018 as part of the third stage expansion plan.

Currently, Incheon Airport manages 72 million passengers per annum. The airport will be able to welcome approximately 100 million travelers when the fourth stage of expansion is complete.

The state-controlled airport operator noted that the expansion project will create 50,000 new jobs and contribute 11 trillion won in economic benefit to South Korea.

The Incheon Airport officially started operations in 2001, five years after the start of construction on the terminal building.

According to the airport’s official website, the Incheon Airport is the world’s third busiest international cargo handler, with plans being finalized to increase its annual freight volume to three million tons by 2020.

Incheon hosts 90 airlines, serving 186 destinations worldwide.

The airport handled 62.1 million passengers in 2017, putting it in 19th place, up one from the previous year. Its growth rate, at 7.5% (the target mark for the next six years) was the fifth highest of the world’s top 20 airports but only Guangzhou Baiyun International and New Delhi Indira Gandhi International were significantly higher, i.e. in double digits.

So how did Incheon come to be so busy in the first place?

South Korea is a quite highly populated country with over 51 million people (10 million in Seoul) and a population density of 350 people per square kilometers, compared to 300 per square km in Great Britain and 230 per square km in Germany, two of Europe’s more highly populated countries.

Comparatively speaking there are relatively few airports, just seven civil and eight civil/military dual-use facilities. So travel is concentrated more in the capital’s two airports, Incheon and Gimpo, than might be the case in most other countries, supported by a high-speed rail network that was first established in 2010 and which now ranks fourth in the world in terms of high-speed train technologies, after France, Germany and Japan.