Northeast Asia’s main gateway Incheon airport wants to double its ground capacity until 2020, hence strengthening its position as one of the top ranking global hubs for cargo and passenger traffic alike. Today South Korea’s gateway is placed second in cargo tonnage (after leading Hong Kong) and twelfth in passenger traffic numbersworldwide.

“Our natural advantage is that we are right in the middle of two huge markets – China and Japan,” stated Eun-Gi Baik, Incheon Metropolitan City’s director general of Seaport, Airport and Logistics during a jointly held road show with leading managers of Asiana Airlines Cargo in Frankfurt, Germany. The event was organised mainly for local cargo agents to better their understanding of Incheon.

“We were named the best airport worldwide for four consecutive years by the Airport Council International but in Europe sites like Hong Kong, Singapore or Shanghai are much better known as important gateways for air freight shipments,” explained manager Baik as to why his enterprise had selected Frankfurt, Milan and Amsterdam for delivering detailed information on Incheon to the local cargo community.

He adds that his airport offers clients cost advantages, be it landing fees, operating charges, or cost per square meter at warehouses, offices, and logistics facilities. “These competitive pros compared to more expensive places like neighboring Pudong, Hong Kong, Beijing or Narita will channel additional traffic to our facility and become a strong argument for logistics providers together with manufacturers to choose our site for establishing their business at Incheon airport or the adjacent free trade zone,” stated Baik.

An additional trigger for getting enterprises lassoed might also be the tax incentive programme offered by the state and the municipality of Incheon. It guarantees investors 100 per cent tax reduction for the first three years and 50 per cent discount for the next two years. The precondition is, however, that manufacturers commit themselves to spend at least US$10 million and logistics providers $5 million.

Last year South Korea’s main gateway reported a throughput of 2.42 million tonnes of air freight. “Until 2020 we want to offer cargo airlines and their agents a yearly capacity of seven million tonnes,” announced Young-Kee Min, the airport’s deputy executive director.

To physically achieve this aim, US$3.5 billion will be invested in the coming years for enlarging the facility. The plan includes the construction of two additional runways, upping traffic capacity from now three to five by 2020. All five runways will be operational 24/7. Aircraft movements will boost from now 80 per hour to possibly 317 per hour due to the infrastructural enhancement.

Further, the entire airport area is set to be more than doubled from today’s 21.3 million square meters to 47.4 million square meters. “It’s a huge program that will long secure our leading position as main hub in Northeast Asia,” assured manager Min.

Part of the plan is the boosting of feeder traffic to link Incheon even closer with industrial centres in China and Japan. An important argument also for German and European shippers who demand fast and reliable transits of their exports at major Asian hubs. As CEO Ingo Zimmer of Asiana Cargo’s Frankfurt-based general sales agent ATC Aviation Service revealed last year 190,000 tonnes were flown out of Germany to China, 66,750 tonnes to Japan, and 54,000 tonnes to Korea.

Much of these goods were transported on board of Asiana Cargo’s freighter fleet and transited at Incheon. “With our unmatched prices and our first class service we expect to get an even bigger portion of this cake in the years to come,” concluded Incheon’s Young-Kee Min atthe Frankfurt event. – Heiner Siegmund