Incheon International Airport in the first half of this year topped the world in international passenger traffic. (Yonhap News)

By Kang Gahui

Incheon International Airport in the first half of the year led the world in international passenger traffic, a first for the facility since its opening in 2001.

Incheon International Airport Corp. on Aug. 13 said the airport handled 38.39 million international passengers from January to June, the most among 1,234 airports worldwide per provisional data from the Canada-based Airports Council International.

London's Heathrow Airport was the runner-up with 37.79 million and Singapore's Changi Airport came in third with 34.53 million.

Incheon airport's ranking in the category steadily rose from 10th in 2002, the year after it opened, to fifth in 2018 and third in both 2024 and last year.

The corporation cited as the main factor the diversion of demand previously routed through the Middle East to Incheon due to weakened transit operations at Mideast hubs like Dubai because of the war between the U.S. and Iran.

The number of transit passengers at the Incheon airport in the first six months of the year reached 4,244,992, up 18.1% from 3,595,660 over the same period last year. The figure for European routes rose 63.2% to 2,501,813.

A combined 101 airlines operate out of the airport, connecting it to 183 cities in 53 countries.

kgh89@korea.kr