Incheon Airport Corporation Announces 'Measures to Support Normalization of Air Travel Demand'... "Revitalizing Domestic Consumption"

On the 6th, Incheon International Airport Corporation announced approximately 1.6 billion KRW worth of “Incheon Airport Air Travel Demand Normalization Support Measures” to restore the core network of Incheon Airport and revitalize major inbound markets such as Greater China, Japan, and Southeast Asia. The corporation plans to introduce key projects related to this every month during the first half of the year.

This support measure is aimed at the successful implementation of the “Activation of Foreign Inbound Tourism” task, part of the government’s “Domestic Demand Revitalization Measures” announced on the 29th of last month. The corporation established these support measures in cooperation with the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport to achieve an early recovery of 10 million inbound tourists this year.

The corporation’s air travel demand normalization support measures include five programs: ▲ New Incubator Program for Newly Launched Non-Scheduled Flights (March), ▲ Welcome to Incheon International Airport Incentive (April), ▲ Network Rebooting 2.0 (April), ▲ Welcome Back Campaign (May), and ▲ Transit Network Activation Incentive (June).

First, through the revamped and expanded New Incubator system, which supports newly launched non-scheduled flights previously implemented before COVID-19, the corporation aims to lower the initial entry barriers for airlines developing new routes despite the unstable market conditions after COVID-19. Compared to the existing system, the scale of marketing support will be increased, and a new strategic new route sector for Incheon Airport’s overseas business expansion locations will be established and supported.

Additionally, the corporation will implement Network Rebooting 2.0 as a supply increase program to drive demand recovery in the short term. By encouraging the resumption and increase of flights on 58 key routes within each region that form the backbone of Incheon Airport’s network but have not yet recovered to pre-COVID-19 supply levels, the corporation plans to achieve balanced supply recovery between regions and normalize major transit axes.

This month, to actively promote domestic demand revitalization by attracting inbound visitors, two programs aimed at the simultaneous recovery of demand and supply will be introduced. Among them, the Welcome to Incheon International Airport Incentive provides promotional and marketing support funds as well as customer acquisition incentives for Korean (inbound) travel products through Incheon Airport, targeting increased demand during this year’s summer peak season (June to August).

Furthermore, through support for Incheon Airport’s hub network, the corporation plans to defend against transit market losses caused by the resumption of direct flights by surrounding competing countries. In addition, during May, the golden time for inbound travel, the Welcome Back Campaign will be promoted. To attract overseas tourists who are resuming travel after COVID-19, related content production, short-form video and photo contests, and SNS campaigns will be conducted.

Based on the comprehensive flight applications from airlines, Incheon International Airport Corporation predicts that the average daily flights in April will be 724, and daily passengers will reach 140,000, recovering to 73% and 75% of the 2019 levels, respectively. Kim Beom-ho, Head of Future Business Division at Incheon International Airport Corporation, said, “The temporary exemption of K-ETA and restoration of the transit visa-free system, which will be implemented from April as part of the domestic demand revitalization policy, will accelerate the recovery of inbound tourism.” He added, “The corporation will secure route supply capacity early and take the lead in creating an atmosphere for revitalizing inbound and transit tourism in line with this.”

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.