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Incheon. I have flown many hundreds of times over my lifetime to most continents and this remains the best thought-out airport. I only need give 1 example. You

Incheon. I have flown many hundreds of times over my lifetime to most continents and this remains the best thought-out airport. I only need give 1 example. You can move from your seat on the plane, with your 4-wheeled cabin case, all the way through the entire airport to your taxi using no more than your pinky finger to push the case. There are no bumps, no stairs, no changes in elevation that require you lift the thing. A 90yr old could do it. This is no accident.

thunderbong 5y ago
The article rates Incheon airport at the top of the list.
- csomar 5y ago
  The dangerous question is: Is it turning a profit (or at least breaking even?); or being supported by the government. Because the Asia economy flights are "dirt cheap".
  - b3morales 5y ago
    Does the airport individually need to make a profit if its effect on the region is net positive?
    - csomar 5y ago
      Sure not, but then it could be a door for corruption.
  - yongjik 5y ago
    Actually yes, in 2019 it made a profit of 890.5 billion KRW, or about 770M USD, which was a 15-year profitable streak since 2004 [1]. (It lost money in 2020, but that's hardly surprising ...) To be fair, it's one of the few airports in Korea that's actually making money. After Incheon, Korea built many vanity project airports and most of them are bleeding money. [1] https://www.yna.co.kr/view/AKR20200109105300004 https://www.yna.co.kr/view/AKR20200109105300004 (article in Korean)
csomar 5y ago
Thought-out and creative. They took advantage of the nice glass-view they have in terminals. There is space with outlets where you can get some work (ie: browsing HN) done. I took a photo (this was pre-covid). The other big one (for me, haha) is that they had the smoking lounge very close. So I leave my laptop/bag for some vaping while being able to watch them from inside the smoking area. https://i.imgur.com/pVOEGoO.jpg https://i.imgur.com/pVOEGoO.jpg
ericbarrett 5y ago
I love the napping lounge (with showers and a reasonably priced massage service) on the top floor—tell me it’s still there!
robaato 5y ago
I flew London->Seoul, spent a week, then Seoul->Tokyo and return and carried on back to London. The latter ended up being arriving at 2.30 am and then waiting until 10.00 am for the for the next leg. I was able to have a reasonable snooze, and a free shower quite easily - which was much appreciated.
0xbadcafebee 5y ago
> This is no accident. That's the thing: no big, complex system ever works well by accident. It all comes down to the goals, the vision, and having someone at the top who can see they get met without compromising. Often this does happen, but the goals are "save money" or "increase throughput", which are not human-friendly metrics. If the goal isn't "make the airport dead easy for grandma", then it will probably be difficult for her. In other words, we have to care about the right things, or things in general will just end up crappy.
novok 5y ago
When I was stuck at incheon for a few hours, I had a hard time finding a place that would sell cold bottled water. It was bizarre how the convenience shop type of store was just missing in whatever branch of incheon I was waiting at. All the water was slightly warm at the least from the few restaurant type places I was able to get water, even if it came out of a fridge. Also when I arrived at korea where it was a bit confusing for an english speaker to find your way around from the airport. Korea is not integrated with google or apple maps as far as transit directions go, by law I think, so I had to download a korean maps app in a hurry to try to get around, and that korean app was not localized well (or maybe not at all, it was 2 years ago). We also had to use a bus vs. a train to get out as we arrived late and buying the ticket was not a straightfoward process. We almost missed the bus if it wasn't for a nice bus driver guy who also really didn't know english that well. While in japan and a whole bunch of other countries I've landed in, developed or not, I've had none of these issues. Once at our hotel it was a fairly standard experience, and Seoul was quite a nice place to visit! But the airport experience had a lot of weird hitches.
- Danieru 5y ago
  Haha, the water thing is fun. Cold water is torture in Chinese and Korean culture. As in the cultural understanding of drinking cold water is that it hurts, is displeasant, and will cause ingestion. Thus of course no store is going to allow water to get too cold for consumption. Similar to how the German strongly prefer to keep stomachs warm.
- Ansil849 5y ago
  > a nice bus driver guy who also really didn't know english that well. As opposed to the nice bus drivers in English-speaking countries who know Korean really well?
bobsmooth 5y ago
These kinds of anecdotes are why I come to this site.

thunderbong 5y ago

The article rates Incheon airport at the top of the list.

csomar 5y ago
The dangerous question is: Is it turning a profit (or at least breaking even?); or being supported by the government. Because the Asia economy flights are "dirt cheap".
- b3morales 5y ago
  Does the airport individually need to make a profit if its effect on the region is net positive?
  - csomar 5y ago
    Sure not, but then it could be a door for corruption.
- yongjik 5y ago
  Actually yes, in 2019 it made a profit of 890.5 billion KRW, or about 770M USD, which was a 15-year profitable streak since 2004 [1]. (It lost money in 2020, but that's hardly surprising ...) To be fair, it's one of the few airports in Korea that's actually making money. After Incheon, Korea built many vanity project airports and most of them are bleeding money. [1] https://www.yna.co.kr/view/AKR20200109105300004 https://www.yna.co.kr/view/AKR20200109105300004 (article in Korean)

csomar 5y ago

Thought-out and creative. They took advantage of the nice glass-view they have in terminals. There is space with outlets where you can get some work (ie: browsing HN) done. I took a photo (this was pre-covid). The other big one (for me, haha) is that they had the smoking lounge very close. So I leave my laptop/bag for some vaping while being able to watch them from inside the smoking area. https://i.imgur.com/pVOEGoO.jpg https://i.imgur.com/pVOEGoO.jpg

ericbarrett 5y ago

I love the napping lounge (with showers and a reasonably priced massage service) on the top floor—tell me it’s still there!

robaato 5y ago

I flew London->Seoul, spent a week, then Seoul->Tokyo and return and carried on back to London. The latter ended up being arriving at 2.30 am and then waiting until 10.00 am for the for the next leg. I was able to have a reasonable snooze, and a free shower quite easily - which was much appreciated.

0xbadcafebee 5y ago

> This is no accident. That's the thing: no big, complex system ever works well by accident. It all comes down to the goals, the vision, and having someone at the top who can see they get met without compromising. Often this does happen, but the goals are "save money" or "increase throughput", which are not human-friendly metrics. If the goal isn't "make the airport dead easy for grandma", then it will probably be difficult for her. In other words, we have to care about the right things, or things in general will just end up crappy.

novok 5y ago

When I was stuck at incheon for a few hours, I had a hard time finding a place that would sell cold bottled water. It was bizarre how the convenience shop type of store was just missing in whatever branch of incheon I was waiting at. All the water was slightly warm at the least from the few restaurant type places I was able to get water, even if it came out of a fridge. Also when I arrived at korea where it was a bit confusing for an english speaker to find your way around from the airport. Korea is not integrated with google or apple maps as far as transit directions go, by law I think, so I had to download a korean maps app in a hurry to try to get around, and that korean app was not localized well (or maybe not at all, it was 2 years ago). We also had to use a bus vs. a train to get out as we arrived late and buying the ticket was not a straightfoward process. We almost missed the bus if it wasn't for a nice bus driver guy who also really didn't know english that well. While in japan and a whole bunch of other countries I've landed in, developed or not, I've had none of these issues. Once at our hotel it was a fairly standard experience, and Seoul was quite a nice place to visit! But the airport experience had a lot of weird hitches.

Danieru 5y ago
Haha, the water thing is fun. Cold water is torture in Chinese and Korean culture. As in the cultural understanding of drinking cold water is that it hurts, is displeasant, and will cause ingestion. Thus of course no store is going to allow water to get too cold for consumption. Similar to how the German strongly prefer to keep stomachs warm.
Ansil849 5y ago
> a nice bus driver guy who also really didn't know english that well. As opposed to the nice bus drivers in English-speaking countries who know Korean really well?

bobsmooth 5y ago

These kinds of anecdotes are why I come to this site.