{"id":61283,"date":"2026-08-13T02:05:25","date_gmt":"2026-08-13T06:05:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/world\/south-koreas-incheon-airport-beats-heathrow-to-become-worlds-busiest\/13\/08\/2026\/"},"modified":"2026-08-13T02:05:25","modified_gmt":"2026-08-13T06:05:25","slug":"south-koreas-incheon-airport-beats-heathrow-to-become-worlds-busiest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/world\/south-koreas-incheon-airport-beats-heathrow-to-become-worlds-busiest\/13\/08\/2026\/","title":{"rendered":"South Korea&#8217;s Incheon airport beats Heathrow to become world&#8217;s busiest"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p class=\"mb-4 min-w-0 leading-7 break-words md:leading-8 col-body text-[18px] charcoal-color\">South Korea&#8217;s Incheon has become the world&#8217;s busiest airport by passenger traffic for the first time, new figures show.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 min-w-0 leading-7 break-words md:leading-8 col-body text-[18px] charcoal-color\">Incheon International Airport, the main gateway to South Korea, served 38.4 million international passengers for the first six months of this year, according to preliminary data from the Airports Council International.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 min-w-0 leading-7 break-words md:leading-8 col-body text-[18px] charcoal-color\">London Heathrow Airport ranked second with 37.79 million passengers, followed by Singapore&#8217;s Changi Airport with 34.53 million.<\/p>\n<div class=\"col-fullbleed mb-4 bg-marshmallow pb-5 dark:bg-ramones md:invisible md:mb-0 md:h-0 md:overflow-hidden md:pb-0\">\n<p>Advertisement<\/p>\n<div class=\"flex w-full flex-nowrap justify-center\">\n<div class=\"flex w-full items-center justify-center\" id=\"_R_149bmap4lueknpf9mtbH1_\">\n<p>Advertisement<\/p>\n<style type=\"text\/css\"><![CDATA[#_R_149bmap4lueknpf9mtbH1_ { display: none; }\n@media screen and (max-width: 767.95px) {\n        #_R_149bmap4lueknpf9mtbH1_ { display: flex; }\n        iframe { max-width: 100vw; }\n      }]]><\/style>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"col-body hidden dark:bg-ramones [&amp;:has(iframe[height='0'])]:mb-0 [&amp;:has(iframe[height='0'])]:pb-0 md:block\">\n<div class=\"flex w-full flex-nowrap justify-center\">\n<div class=\"flex hidden w-full items-center justify-center\" id=\"_R_249bmap4lueknpf9mtbH1_\">\n<style type=\"text\/css\"><![CDATA[#_R_249bmap4lueknpf9mtbH1_ { display: none; }\n@media screen and (min-width: 768px) {\n        #_R_249bmap4lueknpf9mtbH1_ { display: flex; }\n        iframe { max-width: 100vw; }\n      }]]><\/style>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"mb-4 min-w-0 leading-7 break-words md:leading-8 col-body text-[18px] charcoal-color\">Incheon&#8217;s airport attributed its rise partly to the diversion of passengers from aviation hubs in the Middle East because of the conflict between the US and Iran.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 min-w-0 leading-7 break-words md:leading-8 col-body text-[18px] charcoal-color\">Dubai International Airport, which ranked second both in 2024 and 2025 based on full-year statistics, is expected to fall outside the top five this time.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 min-w-0 leading-7 break-words md:leading-8 col-body text-[18px] charcoal-color\">London&#8217;s Heathrow airport ranked fifth in 2024 and seventh in 2025, while Incheon ranked 12th and 13th, respectively.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 min-w-0 leading-7 break-words md:leading-8 col-body text-[18px] charcoal-color\">Some passengers who previously transited through Dubai on the way to Europe are now travelling via Incheon, the airport corporation said, fuelling an 18% rise in transfer passengers from the same period last year.<\/p>\n<div class=\"col-fullbleed mb-4 bg-marshmallow pb-5 dark:bg-ramones md:invisible md:mb-0 md:h-0 md:overflow-hidden md:pb-0\">\n<p>Advertisement<\/p>\n<div class=\"flex w-full flex-nowrap justify-center\">\n<div class=\"flex\" id=\"_R_199bmap4lueknpf9mtbH1_\">\n<p>Advertisement<\/p>\n<style type=\"text\/css\"><![CDATA[#_R_199bmap4lueknpf9mtbH1_ { display: none; }\n@media screen and (max-width: 767.95px) {\n        #_R_199bmap4lueknpf9mtbH1_ { display: flex; }\n        iframe { max-width: 100vw; }\n      }]]><\/style>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"mb-4 min-w-0 leading-7 break-words md:leading-8 col-body text-[18px] charcoal-color\">The number of transfer passengers whose final destinations were in Europe rose 63.2% to 210,000, it added.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 min-w-0 leading-7 break-words md:leading-8 col-body text-[18px] charcoal-color\">The corporation said the expansion of infrastructure also enabled the airport to manage a larger traffic load. Incheon, which opened in 2001, serves 158 international destinations.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 min-w-0 leading-7 break-words md:leading-8 col-body text-[18px] charcoal-color\">In comparison, Hong Kong&#8217;s International Airport serves 139 destinations, Shanghai&#8217;s Pudong serves 92 while Tokyo&#8217;s Narita serves 86.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 min-w-0 leading-7 break-words md:leading-8 col-body text-[18px] charcoal-color\">&#8220;We&#8217;re grateful for the [South Korean] government&#8217;s support, the public&#8217;s encouragement and the hard work of everyone stationed at the airport in making Incheon the world&#8217;s No. 1 airport,&#8221; said the Incheon airport corporation&#8217;s acting president Kim Beom-ho.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 min-w-0 leading-7 break-words md:leading-8 col-body text-[18px] charcoal-color\">Kim added the corporation planned to strengthen competitiveness by focusing on passenger convenience.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/travel.yahoo.com\/news\/articles\/south-koreas-incheon-airport-beats-054926722.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>South Korea&rsquo;s Incheon has become the world&rsquo;s busiest airport by passenger traffic for the first time, new figures show. Incheon International Airport,<br \/><button class=\"read-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/world\/south-koreas-incheon-airport-beats-heathrow-to-become-worlds-busiest\/13\/08\/2026\/\">Read More &rsaquo;<\/a><\/button><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":61284,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-61283","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-world"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/s.yimg.com\/lo\/mysterio\/api\/c23bb4282ac0454b4341e0eae7530edec056aa8b909bbdcf4272e25af8c9726d\/lightyear_networkapi\/resizefill_w1200%3Bquality_80%3Bformat_jpg\/https%3A%2F%2Fmedia.zenfs.com%2Fen%2Fbbc_us_articles_995%2Ff91399b62acd485400809cc508409659.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61283","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=61283"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61283\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/61284"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=61283"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=61283"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=61283"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}