Incheon Airport poised to turn a profit in 2023

Incheon International Airport [Courtesy of Incheon International Airport Corporation]

South Korea’s Incheon International Airport is set to emerge from the impact of the Covid‐19 pandemic after four years. After losing money from 2020 to 2022, the airport is forecast to turn a profit for the first time in 2023, with international passenger traffic projected to return to pre-Covid-19 levels in 2024.

According to Incheon International Airport Corp., the corporation is anticipating revenue of 2.1 trillion won ($1.61 billion) and a net profit of 380 billion won for 2023, its first profit in four years.

The corporation was in the red for three consecutive years until 2022, after first turning into a loss in 2020 due to Covid-19.

Incheon International Airport opened in March 2001 and became the world’s fifth-largest airport in terms of international passenger traffic in 2019, with 88 airlines serving 173 cities in 52 countries. But its revenue, which stood at 2.76 trillion won (with 71.17 million passengers) in 2019, plummeted to 909.4 billion won (with 3.2 million passengers) in 2021 due toCovid-19’s global impact.

Then, as countries around the world pivoted to an endemic Covid-19 strategy and lifted entry restrictions, demand for air travel surged in 2023.

“The recovery rate of passenger numbers compared to pre-Covid-19 levels was at around 80 percent, and topped 90 percent in November 2023,” an official from the airport said. “More than 90 percent of airport facilities are also now normalized, with no disruptions, such as baggage disturbances. We believe that the airport has completely overcome the Covid-19 crisis.”