Vehicles are packed tightly together with aircraft visible in the distance.

A warning notice, posted a week ago, is visible on a passenger car that has taken up a pedestrian walkway instead of a designated parking space.

This is the state of the parking lots at Incheon International Airport, which has earned the reputation of being a parking hell.

[Lee Heung-sik / Paju, Gyeonggi Province: It is inconvenient. Every time I come here, there is nowhere to park. There is no space today either, it is just completely full.]

There were more reasons for the severe parking shortage than just the overflow of airport passengers.

An audit by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport revealed practices of abusing parking permit issuance and poor management.

Incheon International Airport Corporation (IIAC) and its subsidiary employees were exempted from 4.1 billion won in parking fees last year alone.

The situation sparked public outrage as numerous instances were confirmed where regular parking permits were used for personal purposes, such as vacations.

One month after the audit results were announced, the IIAC has unveiled a plan for improvement.

The number of regular parking permits for resident staff, which previously reached 30,000, will be drastically reduced by half to 15,000, and the requirements for issuance have been tightened.

Unlike the areas around the airport terminals, parking lots located further away are completely empty.

The airport corporation plans to designate these areas exclusively for employees to improve space utilization.

The corporation expects that more than 500 parking spaces will be secured for airport passengers through this measure.

However, complaints have emerged among employees, who claim the announcement was one-sided. Suspicions have also been raised regarding discriminatory application of the rules between employees of the corporation and its subsidiaries, leading to backlash.

The corporation stated, "We will apply the same standards regardless of affiliation," and announced that it would begin a pilot operation starting today (July 1) while refining the measures.

Reorganization Following 'Parking Privilege' Controversy... "Securing 500 Spaces for Customers" (July 1, 2026, Morning Wide)

Reported by Ahn Hee-jae | Written by Lee Se-young | Video by Kim Young-hwan | Video Editing by Kim Jong-mi | Produced by SBS Digital News