"We Had to Circle Around": Parking Hell Before Trips, and Employees Losing Their Spots

With the arrival of the peak summer vacation season spanning from late July to early August, parking chaos is unfolding at airports across the country.

According to the Korea Airports Corporation, as of yesterday afternoon, the 28th, parking lots at major airports nationwide, including Gimpo, Daegu, Gimhae, and Cheongju, were mostly packed to capacity.

At Gimpo International Airport, vehicles formed long lines to enter the parking lot, and drivers had to wait outside for about 20 minutes before reaching the entrance.

An on-site parking management staff member said, "It has been full since morning so we have been blocking entry, managing it on a one-in, one-out basis as cars leave. Parking shortages are at their worst during vacation seasons like this."

The situation is similar at regional airports, with all parking areas checkable online at Daegu, Gimhae, and Cheongju airports completely filled up.

Incheon International Airport, which recently reduced employee regular parking passes and raised fees to ease parking shortages, still had some spare space, but certain terminals suffered from severe congestion.

As outbound vacationers surged, electronic signboards displayed warnings such as "Very Congested" for some floors of Terminal 2's parking lot, showing that inconveniences have not been completely resolved.

A user met at the Terminal 1 parking lot said, "I did have to circle the parking lot once (because there were no spots). I usually park above ground, but came underground because it is summer, but whether above or below ground, you have to circle a few times to find a spot."


Incheon International Airport workers stated that internal backlash is continuing due to the reduction of employee regular parking passes and increased parking fees.

Mr. A, who is in charge of transportation operations at the airport, confided, "While I agree that we need to provide consumers with accessible parking areas, it is questionable why employees who used parking passes while paying legitimate fees also suffered disadvantages."

Flight attendant B from a domestic airline also complained, "Employee parking zones are currently restricted to the 4th and 5th floors of the long-term parking lot, and since the number of resident employees is so large, everyone says there is a shortage of spaces."

They added, "They are raising fees as much as they want, yet even the minimum autonomy regarding parking space is not being guaranteed."

Previously, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport secured approximately 6,200 temporary parking spaces across nationwide airports as part of a special summer vacation traffic countermeasure running until the 10th of next month.

However, as this falls short of accommodating the explosively increased demand from vacationers, chronic airport parking shortages are expected to continue for the time being.
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.