After landing at the Incheon International Airport for a 7 hour stopover this airport just blew me away and exceeded my expectations, which rarely ever happens! To sum up my initial impressions of the airport: surgically clean, idiot-proof, clear and concise signage that is both easy to read and navigate with a modern, almost high-tech architecture. Here are some pictures that I shot while at the airport so you know what I’m drooling about.
Incheon International Airport
Well, what can I say? After spending two stopovers totaling 14 hours at the Incheon International Airport, I definitely believe this airport deserves it’s title. It’s a truly fantastic and refreshing airport to spend time in. Now, I know why they call this airport the “World’s Best Airport” or “the best international airport nobody knows about” as Joe Brancatelli said to the LA Times. David Grossman from USA Today asks why not more crappy US airports can be like Incheon. Passenger reviews at SKYTRAX agree as well. SKYTRAX ranks Incheon, as well as Hong Kong International and Singapore Changi Airport, as 5-Star airports. And Sleeping in Airports gives Incheon a very comfortable 2nd place, right after Changi.
Here’s a Wikipedia list of all the praise the airport has gotten so far:
Awards, certifications, and ratings
Incheon International airport has won numerous awards since its opening, including:
- In 1998, received ISO certifications in airport construction and airport services.
- From 2002, won for three consecutive years, the Best Airport Award according to IATA and ACI.
- In 2002, was rated second in the Best Airport Worldwide category according to IATA and ACI.
- Incheon International Airport Corporation became the first in the world to receive ISO certification in airport services.
- In 2005, won the Best Airport Worldwide 2005 award from AETRA Service Monitoring which was jointly conducted by IATA and ACI.
- In 2006, received the ATRS’ Top Asia-Pacific Efficiency Award after achieving a residual variable factor productivity efficiency value that was 57% higher than the average of those in the region.
- In 2006, was awarded as the world’s best airport based on a passenger survey conducted by the IATA.
- Was named Best Airport Worldwide at the first Airport Service Quality Awards1
- Received an ISO certification in the environmental category.
- Was awarded the “Best in Service Award in Class” at the 1st International Conference on Airport Quality and Service by the IATA and the ACI.
- The airport ranked second in “Best Airport Worldwide”, behind Hong Kong International Airport, and tied with Singapore Changi Airport.
- Won the GT Tested Award for Best Airport in the World in January 2007.2
- Named by Global Traveler (GT) as the Best Airport in the World for the second straight year in January 2008.3
The Incheon airport offers passengers lots of activities they can engage in to spend their time more pleasantly. For one, there is the “Korea Traditional Cultural Experience Center” (see gallery above) where travelers can make their own handicrafts for free, which I think is a great way to experience the Korean culture and keep kids occupied. 
If your stopover is more than 7 or 8 hours you get to stay at the airport hotel and for free and get a good night sleep. Check your airline for details. There are also special transit tours you can sign-up for, ranging anywhere from 1-8 hours. To find out what options are available you can take a look at some of the available tours here. I personally visited the Yonggungsa Temple, famous for its 1300 year old zelkova tree. Here are some pictures I shot while I was there.
Yonggungsa Temple
If you want to visit downtown Seoul however, be sure to check out this site. It shows the travel times, fares and timetables to some of the major destinations around the Incheon airport with some very good explanations including pictures. But before you go sightseeing, check beforehand if you have enough time to do so during your stopover. You wouldn’t want to miss your flight!
Back from my transit tour to the Yonggungsa Temple, I went upstairs to get something to eat (some Korean Bibimbap), as I was very hungry. Food was, as excepted, very good. Or doesn’t this look good?
Food at the Incheon Airport
And if that doesn’t make you hungry, this certainly will. There’s nothing like the real experience though.
Now, that my tummy was filled with all that good food, I went and got a 15 min. massage, showered afterwards and relaxed in the resting area upstairs. Once it was time to board the plane to Hanoi, I went to my gate without any security checks. Remember, I was outside the airport for a 1 hour sightseeing tour. Even though I passed customs and immigrations before, I went on the transit tour and could have posed a security threat. I was later explained that this is common with flights within Asia. Even though there is a security threat in this procedure, I believe that all security measures are a false sense of security in the first place. How many terrorist attacks (that are not government sponsored!) have there been in Asia? The best security is a good foreign policy. But this fact aside, I love being able to go to my gate and board my plane without having to strip naked for security officers. 
In the end I did manage to find one flaw with this airport. The Starbucks that I encountered there did not serve any green tea?! That was a first for me.
Next stop: One of the worst airports in the world, according to the highly regarded website Sleeping in Airports – Hanoi Airport.
- http://airportservicequality.ch/news [↩]
- “Premium Travelers Name Incheon International Top Airport Global Traveler Readers have Chosen the Airport as the Best in the World”. PR Web Website. 2007-01-21. http://prweb.com/releases/2007/1/prweb498796.htm. Retrieved 2010-01-30. [↩]
- http://www.kois.go.kr/News/News/NewsView.asp?serial_no=20080111012 [↩]
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