AIRPORT WORLD 2025, ISSUE 04
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Airport Profile: Incheon
Special Report: India’s Travel Retail Market
Plus: e-GSE, Baggage Handling; Cybersecurity; Business Exchange & People Matters
Open to innovation
Editor, Joe Bates, explains why he feels a strong connection with Incheon International Airport and reflects on the innovation theme of this issue.
When I joined Airport World some 25 years ago now, little did I know that less than a week later I would be in South Korea to write a feature about the soon to open Incheon International Airport.
As construction work wasn’t quite complete, on my visits to the airport I was kitted out in protective goggles and a hardhat, and Wellington boots often replaced my shoes on journeys to some of the portacabins and huts scattered across muddier areas of the huge site.
It was an incredible experience, and ever since then it has kind of felt like my time at Airport World has been inextricably linked to the airport as I have been back there around a dozen times to report on its successes or attend conferences.
I have also been fortunate enough to enjoy a special relationship with every one of its presidents and CEOs over the years, possibly Jae-Hee Lee making the biggest impression on me because of his dynamic leadership and almost uncontained joy at Incheon’s success in ACI’s annual Airport Service Quality (ASQ) Awards, which still brings a smile to my face today.
My homage to Incheon is because Incheon International Airport is once again the lead airport feature in this issue of Airport World, and true to form, current president and CEO, Hag-jae Lee, provides an honest and upbeat account of how ICN is faring.
The must-read article on pages 6-11 of our autumn edition covers everything from the airport’s unflinching commitment to customer service excellence and plans to further enhance its passenger and cargo and logistics infrastructure to the goal of operating and developing 10 overseas airports by 2030.
Incheon has also earned itself a reputation for pioneering the use of new technologies, which fits in well with the ‘innovation’ theme of this issue.
It is, however, often easy to forget that innovation isn’t just about new technology, and to prove the point we cover ‘innovation’ in all its forms, ranging from high tech solutions like robots, automated vehicles and new AI driven communication tools to showcasing artworks and the innovative design and construction of new infrastructure.
We also look at the potential benefits of beverage partnerships; and how Internet of Things (IoT) enabled tracker technology is evolving and the operational advantages it offers to airports.
Elsewhere in the issue, APTRA’s Sunil Tuli reflects on the dramatic rise of Indian aviation as a priority market for travel retail in India and beyond; and we learn more about the operational and economic benefits of electric ground support equipment.
How airports are responding to a raft of cyber regulations, addressing legacy systems and bolstering their supply chains; and enhancing airport baggage handling also come under the microscope in this August/September edition of your favourite airport magazine.
We round the issue out with our regular ‘people matters’ column and airport supplier news in the ‘business exchange’ section.
Yep, it’s been a busy summer in the aviation industry in more ways than one. I look forward to an equally busy and interesting last quarter of the year.
