South Korea's Incheon airport opens

A number of problems including baggage handling have dogged the new airport

INCHEON, South Korea -- South Korea's new Incheon International Airport opened on Thursday, with the arrival of the first batch of 245 passengers from Bangkok on Asiana Airlines.

The new $5.5 billion airport will replace the older and congested Gimpo airport which will still be used for domestic flights.

The computerized airport with two runways and 44 terminal gates estimates passenger traffic of about 27 million each year.

Officials see passenger capacity expanding to 100 million by the year 2020.

In the meantime, arriving passengers will still have to pay twice as much for a taxi ride to downtown Seoul as they would from the older Gimpo airport.

VIDEO CNN's Sohn Jie Ae reports on the opening of South Korea's new airport Play video (QuickTime, Real or Windows Media)

Cheap rail service will not be available until 2005.

Protesters gone

Airport and airline workers were at their posts, erasing any sign of the previous day's strike threat.

Some 16,500 unionized workers at Gimpo airport, Korean, Air, and Asiana Airlines called off the planned strike after the government agreed to meet their demand that toll fees to the Incheon airport be reduced.

A single highway leads to the airport from Seoul, some 60 kilometers (37 miles) away.

Starting April 20, airport and airline workers will have to pay only 2,000 won ($2) instead of the 10,000 ($8.3) won that motorists are normally charged.

South Korea hopes the Incheon airport would become a traffic hub in Northeast Asia.

Airport workers are seeking to rectify baggage-handling problems encountered during test runs.

There it has also been reported that luggage x-ray systems at the airport failed to detect guns and other metal objects.

The Incheon airport is the latest airport renewal project in Asia.

In 1998, Hong Kong opened Chek Lap Kok Airport, and Malaysia inaugurated Kuala Lumpur International Airport.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Strike averted at Incheon aiport
March 27, 2001

See related sites about Asia

Note: Pages will open in a new browser window

External sites are not endorsed by CNN Interactive.