Incheon International Airport Security (Incheon Airport Security), which handles security screening at Incheon International Airport, is pushing to add staff to respond to increased airport congestion driven by a rise in passenger numbers and Asiana Airlines' transfer of its passenger terminal.
For Incheon Airport Security to increase its workforce, it must amend its contract with Incheon International Airport Corporation (IIAC), its parent company and outsourcing principal. The company plans to seek consulting from an external organization to establish grounds for changing the contract.
According to the aviation industry on Feb. 5, Incheon Airport Security is looking for a consulting contractor to determine the size of the staffing increase. It has also been collecting data since on the 14th of last month, including working hours by employee and the number of personnel assigned by worksite and facility.
Based on the collected data, Incheon Airport Security plans to complete the consulting by May, calculate the required staffing increase, and deliver it to IIAC. It then plans to amend the contract and hire the necessary personnel.
Incheon Airport Security plans to request additional staffing primarily for workers at Terminal 2 (T2). Asiana Airlines moved its base to T2, increasing the number of passengers using T2 and raising concerns about excessive workloads for employees there.
According to Incheon Airport Security, 1,156 people work in shifts at T1 and 887 at T2. During the airport's peak congestion hours (5 a.m. to 8 a.m.), 353 people work at T1 and 383 at T2.
Among the more than about 200,000 daily users of Incheon Airport, the share using each terminal was 65 to 35 between T1 and T2 through last year, before Asiana Airlines' transfer to T2. Since the transfer on the 14th of last month, it has shifted to roughly 50 to 50. During peak hours, T2 often has more passengers.
Although T2 currently has more workers, about 62 of them are 50 workers dispatched from T1 and 12 off-duty workers. Since the Incheon Airport Security labor and management sides agreed to this special duty through the Lunar New Year holiday on the 18th, after that T1 will have 400 workers and T2 will have 350.
Moreover, even with the additional support personnel, T2 is unable to operate about 30% of its 34 security screening lanes during peak hours due to staff shortages. This is causing delays in passenger departure processing, and if no additional agreement is reached after the Lunar New Year holiday, passenger inconvenience could increase.
To maintain the current special duty system, security staff working in a seven-team, four-shift schedule are working extended night shifts and taking morning shifts even on off-days. The Incheon Airport Security union says this system cannot be extended indefinitely, prompting the company to push for more staff.
An Incheon Airport Security official said, "Since Asiana Airlines' transfer, T2 has become more active, and additional staffing is urgent enough that we need to expand support duty at T2 even after the Lunar New Year holiday," adding, "At T1, passenger numbers fell as Asiana Airlines left, but with overall passenger growth continuing, we are operating with the minimum number of staff."
Incheon Airport handled 74,071,475 passengers last year, an all-time high. That was up 4.10% from the previous year and 4.08% higher than 71,169,722 in 2019, before the COVID-19 pandemic. Previously, the Incheon Airport Security union argued that about 150 additional workers were needed due to the increase in passengers and Asiana Airlines' transfer to T2.