ROUTE DEVELOPMENT
Low-cost carriers
A major development at Incheon in recent years has been the growth of low-cost carriers (LCCs). LCCs have mushroomed in South Korea where they are popular for domestic travel, and in recent years both Korean Air and Asiana have launched their own no-frills subsidiaries – Jin Air in 2008 and Air Busan in 2007.
There are currently nine LCCs operating from Incheon, including Easter Airlines, Hong Kong Express, Business Air and Cebu Pacific and their traffic mushroomed by 120% in 2010. Lee now expects them to achieve “dramatic” traffic growth in 2011 and 2012. A major coup was the addition of Air Asia X, the LLC giant of Southeast Asia, which touched down in November 2010 for its inaugural flight between Kuala Lumpur International Airport and Incheon. Perhaps one reason for its success in attracting LCCs and other carriers has been Incheon’s attractive route incentive scheme. The airport waives 100% of its landing fees for a new route for the first year of operation. For increased frequencies the airport offers up to 50% reductions and 25% for night-time operations.
Another crucial advantage when it comes to future competitiveness is the airport’s location. Incheon is built on some 5,600 hectares of reclaimed land and has plenty of space to increase in size. Phase three of Incheon’s expansion, which will be completed by 2015, will see new cargo facilities and a second terminal added, as well as the operation of the gateway’s third runway. Thanks to these projects Incheon can expect to nearly double capacity to 62mppa, and for Lee this is something many of its competitors cannot provide. “Compared with neighbouring airports, such as Kansai, Shanghai Pudong and Beijing, and domestic airports like Seoul’s Gimpo, which have little or no land available to expand, Incheon has room and that’s our strength. It’s a big advantage that when demand hits, we can supply,” says Lee. Incheon’s location several miles to the south of Incheon City means it is able to operate 24-hour operations and thanks to these it can offer airlines an hourly slot capacity of 63. As Incheon celebrates its 10th anniversary of operations it can be proud of its position as a leading international gateway and look forward to building on its success in the future.
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