Incheon International Airport held a ceremony to celebrate the 100 millionth transfer passenger in front of Gate 232 of Terminal 2 on March 2.
President Kim Kyung-wook of Incheon International Airport Corp. (IIAC) and President Woo Ki-hong of Korean Air attended the event, and they presented the passenger with a lucky key, a Korean Air round-trip flight ticket and Grand Hyatt accommodation ticket to extend their thanks for designating the airport as a transfer destination.
Incheon International Airport made the feat of achieving the 100 millionth transfer passenger on March 2 only 22 years after its opening.
The number of transfer passengers stood at 1.63 million in 2001 when the airport was opened. The figure continuously increased, surging to 7.23 million in 2019.
The number plunged to about 540,000 in 2021 due to the effects caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, but Incheon International Airport saw transfer passenger figure bounce back to 2.71 million passengers in 2022, a 400 percent year-on-year jump, faster than its rival airports in China and Japan.
IIAC plans to secure an upper hand in a race to attract transfer passengers in Northeast Asia by ratcheting up diverse transfer marketing activities to restore transfer passenger demand.
First, the corporation plans to ramp up transfer axes, such as North America-Southeast Asia and Japan-Europe.
IIAC will step up off-line marketing activities, such as a program of touring transfer facilities inviting local travel agencies, familiarization tours of experiencing transfer, more than 30 explanation sessions annually, and road shows in order to publicize the airport’s outstanding transfer facilities and services.
The corporation will release “Welcome Back” packages inviting passengers visiting the airport during the summer high season.
The packages comprise of SNS marketing activities designed to spur travel sentiment, discount promotion at the airport’s commercial facilities, a one-night free transfer tour, which has resumed in January and over one-night transfer tour product “K-Stopover.”
They are designed to help passengers enjoy specialized transfer experiences Incheon International Airport offers.
The corporation will step up marketing activities to prioritize reinvigorating supply and demand in regions, such as China, accounting for about 20 percent of the airport’s total passengers, Japan, Taiwan and Hong Kong.
The “Network Rebooting 2.0” program, which paid off last year, is expected to spur the supply of flight routes whose recovery has slowed.
The program finances marketing and operation costs of flight routes and airliners to restore flight demand.
IIAC plans to establish a virtuous cycle of supply and demand by introducing “Welcome to ICN” program in regions where demand has been dwindled relatively.
The program is designed to support airliners’ marketing costs for attracting passengers bound for Korea.
Now that competition in a Northeast Asian hub is mounting with aggressive investments into the airport industry, such as the Chinese government’s construction of new airports and expanding the existing airports, IIAC will also maintain close relations through regular partnerships with the tourism, airline and airport industries, while ramping up efforts to share information and conduct marketing collaboration, such as the development of new marketing tools.
Incheon International Airport Hits Gas to Build Eco-Friendly Airport Infrastructure
IIAC struck an MOU on building eco-friendly airport infrastructure to spread hydrogen mobility supply with the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, Incheon Metropolitan City, `SK Plug Hyverse, and Korea Gas Technology Corp. at Songdo Coventia in Incheon on Feb. 22.
In January, IIAC was designated as the winner of a state-initiated project to build a hydrogen integrated center at Incheon International Airport, conducted in cooperation with Incheon Metropolitan City.
The deal calls for launching the construction of a hydrogen integrated center comprising of hydrogen car maintenance, washing, parking, rest and liquefied hydrogen charging at a bus garage of Incheon Airport Terminal 2. The center is scheduled to be dedicated by 2024.