The flight from Doha (Qatar) to Incheon (South Korea) with Qatar Airways was really nice and smooth. Due to some system error my choice of vegetarian food was not registered for the flight but the amazing crew, especially the head stewardess, made sure I would have a vegetarian meal. She even came back later for a little chat offering a glass of champagne! Excellent and very friendly service.
South Korea was having its own struggle with the virus and at that time they had discovered a new variant. So things had became more strict all of a sudden. If I were to enter the country I would have to quarantine for 14 days apart of the Covid19 negative test. I was permitted to transit as long as my stay was not more than 24h. In my case, my transit was 16 hours throughout the night. It was snowing a lot when I arrived and the temperature outside was around -6°C.
Incheon airport is one of my favorite airports. It was rated as one of the world’s cleanest airports. It normally serves around 70 million passengers (2019 data). But at that time it was very peaceful with very few people around. Most of the shops and facilities were open, they only closed down earlier than normal. The airport is located in an artificial island and the way to go there by either train or bus is quite fascinating. There are two routes and one of them is above the water for almost 12km!
The airport has three different areas with gates (Terminal 1, Concourse A and Terminal 2), connected by free underground metro. Upon arrival in Terminal 2, I was greeted by two little robots, one to carry your hand luggage and one to provide you information or show you around! The information robot, which had a more human form, proved to be quite popular with the tourists and many of them were taking selfies with it.
Although the airport was built in 2001, the Concourse was built in 2008 and Terminal 2 much later, in 2018. So Terminal 2 is the latest area in the airport, blending modern futuristic architecture with nature, it even has real trees inside! Going around you will find many areas to charge your devices, a little fountain and a piano.
My stopover in Incheon was 16 hours throughout the night so normally I would find a little quiet place in the airport and sleep. The next day I had a flight to Japan and I was extremely tired after all the previous flights and lay overs. Further more, the thought of catching a cold or raising a bit of fever and then instead of continuing my trip to be put into some hospital quarantine with other Covid19 positive people gave me the creeps. So that was a good excuse to stay in the transit hotel which was located inside Terminal 2. It would be my first time spending the night in a hotel inside an airport so I was quite excited!
My stay at the Walkerhill Transit Hotel in Terminal 2 was excellent. For more about it check my post Walkerhill Transit Hotel at Incheon airport. Got a light dinner from the 7-11 convenient store which was open 24h. I woke up early in the morning before the sunrise to check out from the hotel and have some breakfast. It had stopped snowing but the runways had still quite a lot of snow. Went to my gate, the aircraft was there but it was kinda odd, the corridor connecting to the cockpit was not connected and there was a guy checking the snow and the turbines. While I was waiting, a few more people gathered. Since this was one the only flight flying to Fukuoka in Japan it was almost full. Weird enough, at the time that we were supposed to board, there was still not much movement in the aircraft which started to worry me. Usually the pilots and crew are way ahead of everybody but that was not the case. Sunrise came, the time that we were supposed to start boarding came, and the situation was still the same.
Suddenly, one of the crew came to the waiting crowd and an announcement was made. Last minute change of gate! So everybody ran to the new gate. Another aircraft was there, this time getting properly ready for flight, the pilots in the cockpit and all the crew rushing in. We saw our bags being loaded so this was definitely a last minute change. Probably the previous aircraft was too frozen? Who knows. Eventually we had a 30 minutes delay but everything else was alright.
It was my first time to fly with Korean Air and I was the only westerner in that flight. Service was nice and there was even an in-flight meal, something I didn’t expect since our flight was only 1h 20min., from South Korea’s Incheon airport to Fukuoka Japan. We had a smoked salmon sandwich, a bit of pineapple, a sweet potato salad and a beverage. Really good food and tasty!
I finally reached Fukuoka in Japan, where everybody had to be screened and tested again for the Covid19 virus…
Additional information
GPS coordinates for places in this post, click on them to be redirected to the exact point in google maps Click on the names to be redirected to their official websites (if applicable).
Incheon International Airport : 37°27’31.7″N 126°26’31.3″E
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