The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport said on the 11th that the overhaul of the valet parking service pursued by Incheon International Airport Corporation (IIAC) was carried out hastily and that procedural violations were found in the contracting process.
According to an audit by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport (MOLIT), the corporation pushed a plan to shorten the driving distance for valet operators, saying it would address speeding, reckless driving and theft by those operators. Previously, vehicles traveled about 4 kilometers from Terminal 1 to an off-site lot, but the overhaul would have had vehicles handed over at the off-site lot, cutting the valet distance to between 0 and 500 meters. However, despite telling the National Assembly it would proceed after consulting, the corporation immediately began the overhaul without even minimal expert review.
The corporation also cited easing congestion at Terminal 1 as a reason for the overhaul, but internal analysis showed it had judged that parking would not be short through 2033 if Asiana Airlines were to transfer to Terminal 2. In fact, after Asiana's transfer, use of the Terminal 1 parking lot decreased. Congestion instead increased at Terminal 2.
User convenience was not sufficiently considered in the process. General-service users would pay the same fee but be required to take a shuttle bus from the off-site handover area, a change in structure. For the premium service, vehicle storage was changed from indoors to outdoors, but the fee was raised to 40,000 won.
Problems were also found in the contracting process. The rent the corporation would receive in return for providing parking spaces was set at 490 million won. The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport (MOLIT) judged the appropriate rent to be 790 million won. It said excessive facility and labor costs for the valet operation were reflected.
There was also criticism that qualification screening was insufficient in the operator selection process. For the general service, shuttle operations between the vehicle handover area and Terminal 1 are essential, which requires a passenger vehicle transport business license. Nevertheless, a company without such a license was selected as the valet parking operator. The audit confirmed the company had planned to operate the shuttle buses itself. The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport (MOLIT) said that if the overhaul had been implemented, there was a possibility that operations in violation of the law could have occurred.
The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport (MOLIT) demanded disciplinary action for those responsible and corrective measures in line with the audit results, and ordered the preparation of an overall improvement plan for airport parking operations, including valet parking.
Kim Yun-duk, Minister of the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, said, "It is a grave lapse in discipline for a public corporation to push a convenience-driven overhaul without first thinking of user benefits in line with public expectations, and then to respond with excuses when problems are raised," and added, "To prevent a recurrence, restore public service discipline and draw up a comprehensive improvement plan."