AIRPORT REPORT: INCHEON
That winning feeling W
As award winning Incheon International Airport celebrates its 10th anniversary this year, Joe Bates discovers that it is hungrier than ever for global success.
hen the site for Seoul’s new international airport was fi rst identifi ed nearly 30 years ago, the South Korean government faced a wave of opposition to its construction.
People complained that its Incheon location, 56 kilometres southwest
of the capital, was too far and claimed that its construction would cause too much environmental damage. Indeed, the protests continued right up until the airport’s
opening a decade ago, with even one of the country’s most eminent university professors joining in and claiming that Incheon was a colossal mistake. Ten years on and those protestors have gone very quiet because
Incheon International Airport is one of the most famous and popular airports in the world – winning ACI’s ASQ customer satisfaction survey for the last six years and a host of other awards to boot. As if that wasn’t endorsement enough, South Korea’s ‘passenger
friendly’ gateway to the world is frequently named as the world’s best by backpackers due to its host of free facilities in the transit lounge for passengers facing long layovers. These ‘freebies’ include cultural attractions such as museums, shower
rooms and WiFi access, while strategically hidden away lounge-type chairs allow users to lie fl at out and get some sleep if they wish. “We are very proud of our success,” comments Incheon’s president and
CEO, CW Lee. “However, that is now in the past and we must continue to improve and get better at what we do if we want to maintain our status as the world’s best airport.”
20 AIRPORT WORLD/FEBRUARY-MARCH 2011 However, briefl y refl ecting on the pre-opening day criticisms of the
airport, Lee notes: “It is true to say that when the airport site was chosen, it wasn’t the most popular choice. In fact, people were quite savage in their criticism. “I wasn’t here then, having only joined in September 2008, but I know
that the critical stories in the Korean newspapers were relentless right up until the trouble-free opening day. “Ten years later and the press are good to us because we are the world’s
best airport and operate a facility that Koreans are very proud of. Have our critics apologised since or admitted they were wrong? No, of course not! But that is the way of newspapers, isn’t it?” So what does it feel like to be the CEO of the world’s most popular airport? “I have been very lucky to inherit a very good and successful
airport. Our success story started long ago before I arrived and my job is to ensure that it continues and that Incheon continues to grow and be successful,” says Lee modestly. “I have three predecessors. Mr Kang built this airport, Mr Cho very much
stabilised the airport and the third CEO, Jahee Lee, really drove the airport forward by focusing on service quality.” CW Lee admits that he had a tough act to follow, but he has quietly and
effi ciently gone about building on the airport’s success over the last two-and-a-half years by stamping his own management style and way of doing things on operator Incheon International Airport Corporation (IIAC). “In some ways, taking over a successful airport was quite stressful as I
felt under big pressure to maintain the levels of success that people had become used to,” explains Lee.
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