South Korea’s new Incheon International Airport, built on reclaimed land 70km west of Seoul, is currently capable of handling 44 million passengers a year, and was this year voted the best in the world by airline passengers.
Halcrow has had a long association with the airport, having formulated the original layout plans for the development, and advised on the timing and scope of the phased construction.
Construction of Incheon Airport began in 1992, by reclaiming 5,615 hectares of land between Yeongjong Island and Youngyu Island. It replaces the city’s Gimpo Airport which, by the late 1980s, had reached capacity. Halcrow was taken on in 1996 to advise the Korea Airport Construction Authority on the integrated planning and design of the airport, and to review all the major facilities layouts. Our role involved formulating detailed layout plans for the new airport, as well as traffic impact assessment, phasing and land-use planning, and providing specialist, high level skills to the Korean team.
The new airport will eventually have two wide-spaced pairs of close-separation parallel runways, each 4,000m long, to enable the largest aircraft to take off and land simultaneously. The passenger terminal complex lies between the runway pairs, and there will be and four concourses with parallel taxiways between them, and the capacity to park 153 aircraft, as well as a cargo terminal with a total floor space of 806,000 sq m.
It is being built in phases, with Phase 1 including the eastern runway pair, the main terminal building, cargo facilities and associated taxiways and apron. This phase, completed in 2001, gave the new airport a capacity of 170,000 flights, 27 million passengers and 1.7 million tonnes of cargo a year.
Ahead of the opening, Incheon International Airport Corporation appointed Halcrow, as subconsultant to Korean consultancy Yooshin Engineering Corporation, to review traffic forecasts and determine the scope and timing of Phase 2 of the development.
We reviewed the latest aviation demand forecasts, then used these forecasts to review various aspects of the proposed airport development. Simulation modelling of the airfield was undertaken using the FAA's SIMMOD program to assess the capacity of the runway and taxiway system and compare this with anticipated throughput. IATA's capacity assessment model was used to check the main functional areas of the terminal at required levels of service. The commission also reviewed ground access layouts and other airport support facilities.
Construction of Phase 2 began in 2002 and was completed in 2008. During this phase, a third parallel 4,000m runway and a 13 hectare cargo terminal area were added. A 16.5 hectare concourse, connected to the main passenger building via two parallel 870m long underground passageways, was added, with a transit system shuttling up to 14,000 passengers an hour between the concourse and the main terminal.
The airport now has an annual capacity of 410,000 flights, 44 million passengers, and nearly 4.5 million tonnes of cargo. Construction is set to continue until 2020, by which time Incheon International Airport will be capable of handling 530,000 flights, 100 million passengers and 7 million tonnes of cargo a year.
One of the keys to success of the new airport is a 40.2km expressway connecting it to Seoul. In the longer term, a 62km long railway link with a top speed of 110km/hr is planned. Other transportation options will include helicopter services, high speed ferries and, ultimately, an underwater tunnel.