When people think of unpleasant airport experiences in East Asia, most people will immediately quote Manila’s Ninoy Aquino International Airport, or Ho Chi Minh City’s airport. In Manila’s case, the airport has strict security controls, lines can often be long, tech isn’t well-integrated (a paper boarding pass is required in almost all cases), and the actual airport terminal isn’t very pleasant either. Ho Chi Minh City, on the other hand, is known for some of the longest security lines at any airport terminal.
Well, earlier this week I passed through an airport that can give both of these airports a run for their money. I was expecting Seoul’s Gimpo Airport to have an efficient city-airport style vibe, much like London City Airport, Milan-Linate Airport, or Shanghai Hongqiao Airport. Well, that’s not exactly the experience I got…
Not a great start to my Gimpo Airport experience…
I booked an ANA premium economy ticket from Seoul Gimpo to London via Tokyo Haneda, with the former leg in economy. I figured I’d efficiently pass through the airport, though wanted to leave a bit of time in case I ran into any issues. So I planned to get from my airport hotel to Gimpo Airport at around 6:15 AM, prior to my 7:45 AM flight.
My first clue should have been when I learned that Gimpo Airport doesn’t accept electronic boarding passes…at all. I was able to successfully check in for the flight from Seoul Gimpo to Tokyo Haneda, though I found it odd that I was meant to deal with the Tokyo Haneda to London flight separately, despite it being on the same itinerary.
The email stated that I’d need to be at the baggage counter one hour before the departure of my flight, so I figured I’d leave a little bit of wiggle room, though didn’t think much else of it.
My airport hotel was one stop away from Gimpo Airport on the Seoul metro, and I got to Songjeong station at around 6 AM. I’d gotten to the airport hotel late the night before (after flying Korean Air’s 737 economy class and transferring over to Gimpo Airport), and figured it’d be a very easy one-stop journey, which would take all of two minutes. Well, go figure that the Seoul metro doesn’t take contactless payment…and worse, the ticket machines only took either cash or Korean cards, and I didn’t have any cash.
After unsuccessfully scrambling to find an ATM, I figured I’d cut my losses, and ordered an Uber. Thankfully, this managed to get me to the airport for not much more than what the metro would’ve cost (around £3, as opposed to £1). I ended up getting to the airport at 6:30 AM, which wasn’t ideal, given that my flight was slated to leave at 7:45 AM.
The above isn’t Gimpo’s fault (it’s mine), though it certainly didn’t set the best tone for the start of the journey.
Gimpo Airport’s outdated and disorganised check-in process
When I got to Gimpo Airport’s international terminal, I initially even thought it was fairly nice, with high ceilings and some plant decoration.
Gimpo Airport International Terminal
The ANA check-in counter was located to the right side (Section D) of the airport. As I’d expected, there was a line at check-in, and it moved slowly. Passengers not needing to check a bag would’ve still needed to queue up, which would’ve contributed to the length of the line. I suppose I got there fairly late, though, so only waited for around 10 minutes before getting my boarding pass.
Gimpo Airport ANA Check-in Area
Even check-in was a little worse than I was expecting. For starters, not everyone at the check-in counter spoke English. When it was fairly clear that I couldn’t speak much Korean, the counter agent beckoned for someone else to help me. This person was friendly and easy to work with.
I was a bit more surprised that Gimpo Airport doesn’t have the ability to through-check bags, a limitation I’ve not seen before. I originally wanted to through-check my smaller roller bag straight to London Heathrow, so I could do some flying for the rest of the day without worrying about it. After learning that I’d have to collect my bag at Tokyo Haneda, I decided I’d just keep my bag, given that it would’ve easily fit onboard (I was teetering above ANA’s 10 kg limit, though this wasn’t checked by the ground staff). I wouldn’t have minded if this was a small town airport, though for an international airport in Seoul I was a little surprised by this.
However, one of the reasons I wanted to keep my bag was because the conveyor belt was so massively backlogged. I don’t know if the above photo does it justice, though the bags were so backed up on the conveyor belt behind the check-in desk that I wasn’t confident they’d all make it on the plane. I almost wondered whether the crew were planning to just manually move all the bags from the check-in counter onboard, since I couldn’t see any of the bags actually being transported away from the check-in desk area (they just seemed to sit on the conveyor belt in a pile of sorts).
Security also wasn’t the city airport haven I was expecting
While I don’t find Incheon Airport to be amazing, I’ve never had to wait overly long to pass through security. I was expecting the smaller Gimpo Airport to be easier to pass through, especially given that they don’t operate many international flights. Boy, was I wrong.
The first hint was the below sign that ANA had put up, saying that the security area was “extremely crowded”, with a picture of a massive line. The sign mentioned that it would take over 40 minutes to get to the boarding gate. Great, that’s a good start. (By the way, check out the baggage backlog on the screen to the right above – those two bags were just sitting there on a stationary conveyor belt.)
Thanks for the heads up, ANA!
So was the security area as messy as ANA had warned? Well…yes. I headed up the escalator towards the departures area, and this is what I was met with.
Good morning to you too, Gimpo Airport!
I appreciate that airports can have long queues during rush hour, though what made this one especially frustrating?
- There was zero queue management whatsoever – a single queue split into three queues as we waited for the identity verification process, and some queues moved faster than others, with nobody ushering us into the individual queues
- There weren’t any stanchions to organise the lines – occasionally I could see people cut in line to join their friends, which nobody patrolled
- While there was a biometrics entrance for Koreans only, most people in line seemed to be Korean – I wonder how much awareness there is that they can expedite their own security experience
Not the most pleasant queue for departures
Once identity verification was complete, we could then choose one of around four queues to get through security. This also moved incredibly slowly – I picked one of the queues, and at one point someone went through one of the open stanchions to join a shorter queue meant for priority/disabled passengers, and a group behind followed, with nobody there to stop us – I ended up being part of that group. As you’d expect these were the old-style scanners, though this wasn’t a big deal.
I’d signed up for South Korea’s automated immigration clearance service at Incheon the night prior, so could use one of the e-gates to pass through departure immigration (the staff seemed to assume that everyone had access to this, and only funnelled people through to see a manual agent if the system failed). I ended up getting through security 33 minutes after I first joined the queue, and ignoring the nonsensically-shaped airside area, I rushed over to the gate for my flight which would be boarding in two minutes – as you’d expect, there was already a fairly long queue as passengers waited to board.
Gimpo Airport’s departures area
It doesn’t sound like Gimpo Airport is always this bad…is it?
33 minutes isn’t a terrible amount of time to wait, though with fewer than 10 flights leaving the terminal in the next two hours, I wasn’t expecting immigration to look so disorganised. Is Gimpo Airport really usually this difficult to transit through?
- This can’t be a one-off (or else ANA wouldn’t have a printed sign warning passengers of the long wait time), though I’ve heard from others that Gimpo can be very easy to pass through at other points in the day – does the airport just have a heavily banked morning rush?
- I’ve not heard great things about the domestic terminal either, though I know they operate a much larger operation (with 120+ flights a day to Jeju alone)…how long does it take to pass through the terminal?
- I’m also curious to know who generally uses Gimpo Airport – is it catered to the business traveller, or is airfare generally cheaper out of there?
Maybe I was just unlucky with Gimpo Airport
Conclusion: My experience at Gimpo Airport
My experience at Gimpo Airport was not pleasant. I was underwhelmed by the very backwards tech, including the lack of mobile boarding passes – however, I was more shocked to see the massive security line with poor queue management, as well as the disorganised management of bags.
Perhaps my initial expectations were far too high, though with Incheon Airport also offering very attractive airfare to a much wider range of destinations, I don’t see myself going out of my way to use Gimpo Airport anytime in the future.
Are my expectations off base? What’s your experience like with Gimpo Airport?
