South Korea's Incheon Airport is considering raising airport user fees, which have been frozen for 23 years.
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According to a report from the Civil Aviation Resources Network on August 11, 2025, the Korea Business Daily reported that Incheon International Airport is considering raising its airport facility fees, which have been frozen for 23 years. This decision stems from the fact that while passenger volume has returned to pre-COVID-19 levels, improving its financial structure remains challenging due to significantly lower airport fees than other international airports. The travel industry is closely watching whether this will lead to higher airfares.
According to aviation industry sources on August 10, the Incheon International Airport Corporation has recently begun studying the restructuring of the airport's facility fee system and is developing reasonable charging standards and revision plans for various fees. Incheon International Airport plans to diagnose the rationality of the current facility fee system and identify improvement measures based on the findings to mitigate the imbalance between aeronautical and non-aeronautical revenue. The airport is also actively considering raising the airport fee included in airfares.
Incheon International Airport recently expanded its Terminal 2 (T2), increasing passenger handling capacity. Last year alone, Incheon Airport handled 70.67 million international passengers, ranking third globally in passenger traffic, behind only Dubai Airport in the United Arab Emirates and Heathrow Airport in the United Kingdom. This year, passenger numbers are expected to reach a record high since its opening.
However, net profit is expected to halve to approximately 397 billion won. This is due to the fact that airport user fees have remained among the lowest in the world since its opening in 2001. As of July 2025, Incheon Airport's passenger airport user fee was 17,000 won, having been raised only once, in 2002, a year after its opening, and then frozen for over 20 years. This is only one-fifth of the 93,470 won charged by Heathrow Airport, which ranks slightly higher than Incheon globally. Singapore's Changi Airport charges 60,823 won, and even Ho Chi Minh City Airport in Vietnam charges 29,997 won, higher than Incheon.
Landing fees, paid by aircraft or passengers when using airport transportation facilities, have also remained stagnant since 2004. Assuming a Boeing 777-300ER carrying 270 passengers lands for four hours and uses the aerobridge for 110 minutes, Incheon Airport's landing fee as of June was 3,949,268 won. Heathrow Airport's fee is over four times higher, at 16,728,551 won.
An Incheon Airport representative stated, "Due to a prolonged freeze and continued inflation, current fees are extremely low compared to major international airports, and there is an urgent need to bring them into line with reality." He added, "We plan to gradually increase fees, starting with the transit fee for foreign passengers."