Travellers are seen at the Incheon International Airport in Incheon on Aug. 16.NEWS1
Incheon International Airport, which operates one of the world’s most advanced baggage handling systems, has recently seen a series of cases in which checked baggage was left behind.
Sixteen pieces of checked baggage were not loaded onto four Jin Air flights departing from Terminal 2 at Incheon International Airport on Sept. 4, aviation industry sources said Saturday.
On Sept. 10, six days later, another 10 pieces of checked baggage were left off five Jin Air flights.
The incidents occurred in the morning, mostly on flights bound for Japan, such as Tokyo and Fukuoka.
Other airlines operating from Terminal 2, such as Air Seoul and Air Busan, reportedly experienced similar problems around the same period.
Checked baggage at Incheon International Airport is automatically transported and sorted by flight, but delays in baggage screening at the time prevented the check-in counter conveyor belts from operating properly.
The Incheon International Airport Corporation believes the baggage was left behind because security screening was delayed during periods when the volume of checked baggage temporarily increased as transfer and departing flights overlapped.
The airline notified affected passengers and arranged for their baggage to be delivered on subsequent flights.
The recent incidents are unusual given that Incheon International Airport recorded just two cases of baggage being left behind per 1 million pieces of baggage last year.
Some have pointed to the suspension of security screening staff support from Terminal 1 to Terminal 2 beginning Sept. 1 as a possible factor behind the disruptions.
Travelers queue at the Incheon International Airport on Aug. 2.YONHAP
Since Asiana Airlines moved to Terminal 2 earlier this year, around 50 security screeners from Terminal 1 had been deployed to Terminal 2 in the morning, along with around 10 in the afternoon.
However, the temporary staffing support ended this month after labor and management at Incheon International Airport Security, an Incheon Airport subsidiary, failed to reach an agreement over the arrangement.
The union maintains that the underlying staffing shortage should be addressed by hiring additional security screeners.
Concerns are growing that similar baggage problems could recur as a series of holidays, including Chuseok, National Foundation Day and Hangul Day, approaches, while labor and management have yet to resolve their differences. The Chuseok holiday period falls between Thursday and Sept. 27 this year, with National Foundation Day on Oct. 3 and Hangul Day on Oct. 9.
“We view the recent cases of baggage being left behind as a temporary issue,” an Incheon International Airport Corporation official said. “We will maintain measures such as an emergency staffing system to prevent similar problems from occurring.”
This article was originally written in Korean and translated by a bilingual reporter with the help of generative AI tools. It was then edited by a native English-speaking editor. All AI-assisted translations are reviewed and refined by our newsroom.
