Incheon International Airport Corporation (IIAC) changed how it operates regular parking passes, and airline employees are moving to take legal action over the change. They argue it is unfair that the regular pass system was revised to put airline employees at a disadvantage compared with IIAC staff and other on-site airport employees.
According to the aviation industry on the 8th, employee groups at airlines, including the Korea Pilots' Union Federation and the National Aviation Industry Labor Union Federation, are conducting legal reviews with plans to file for an injunction to suspend the effect of the "paid regular pass operating standards" implemented on the 1st, as well as the regular pass fee hike set to take effect on the 1st of next month.
IIAC's change to its parking pass operations is a follow-up to issues uncovered in a special audit by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport earlier this year. At the time, it was found that paid and free regular parking passes had been issued for 84.5% of the 36,971 spaces in the airport's short- and long-term parking lots, which was cited as a cause of the parking shortage. The corporation has invalidated previously issued regular passes, tightened issuance standards, and is accepting new applications.
The corporation will raise prices for regular parking passes starting on the 1st of next month. The monthly fee had been 35,000 won. Going forward, passes that require exiting within 48 hours after parking will cost 70,000 won per month, and passes that require exiting within 10 days after entry will rise to 110,000 won per month.
Along with this, the short-term parking lots near the airport's departure and arrival halls will be operated mostly for passengers, except for part of the Terminal 1 (T1) short-term parking lot (zones C and D), and the system was changed so that employees of subsidiaries, tenant companies, and airlines can park only in the parking towers within the long-term parking lots farther from the airport.
Airline employees point to an equity issue. They say that IIAC employees, tenant companies, and subsidiary employees do not park for long periods and can resolve their parking needs with the 70,000 won pass, whereas flight crews inevitably have to park for more than 48 hours due to flight schedules and thus are forced to use the more expensive pass. They also say that cargo flight crew with long rotations cannot park at all.
They also argue it is unfair that parts of the T1 short-term parking lots close to the airport are used by the corporation and its subsidiaries, while airline employees are forced to use distant parking towers. An airline employee said, "Are airline crew supposed to bear more disadvantages than the corporation, which was at fault for the improper use of regular passes?" adding, "Airlines are customers that pay the corporation monthly usage fees in the tens of billions of won, so it is not right to suffer such disadvantages."
IIAC said, "The revamp of regular parking passes was decided through stakeholder briefings at the service improvement committee held last month," adding, "We revised the passes to improve public convenience, and since our regular pass fees are the lowest among major airports worldwide, there will be no further changes."