Passenger transport data verification delayed, disrupting travelers at 14 airlines

Incheon International Airport Corp. vows to strengthen system checks with partner agencies

A network failure affecting airlines at Incheon International Airport has disrupted departure procedures. The outage, which began at 4:30 a.m., hit the airline network connecting ticketing systems, causing delays at check-in counters across the airport. Travelers are seen checking the arrivals and departures board at Terminal 1.
A network failure affecting airlines at Incheon International Airport has disrupted departure procedures. The outage, which began at 4:30 a.m., hit the airline network connecting ticketing systems, causing delays at check-in counters across the airport. Travelers are seen checking the arrivals and departures board at Terminal 1.

Incheon International Airport has been hit by yet another departure-related system failure, the third such incident in a single week, causing repeated inconvenience for travelers.

According to Yonhap, a system failure that prevented normal verification of passenger transport data occurred at around 6:35 a.m. Friday at the departure halls on the third floor of Terminal 1 and Terminal 2.

Passengers who had completed check-in at the counters repeatedly received "transport information unconfirmed" alerts when scanning their boarding passes at security checkpoint readers.

Security staff were forced to manually cross-check passports against boarding passes, leaving travelers at 14 airlines — 10 at Terminal 1 and four at Terminal 2 — temporarily inconvenienced.

Incheon International Airport Corp. completed emergency repairs 52 minutes after the failure began, at around 7:27 a.m. The corporation said no flights were delayed as a result of the outage.

"We believe the failure was caused by a temporary delay in data processing within the airport's internal systems," a corporation official said. "We took steps to minimize congestion in the departure hall at the time."

Including Friday's incident, three departure-related system failures have occurred at Incheon airport within the past week.

Earlier, on Oct. 30, a failure struck network equipment at Incheon airport managed by ARINC, a US-based airline network platform provider.

The outage caused communication instability at 44 airlines, and 11 Chinese carriers among them were unable to access their check-in systems, halting ticketing operations for about five hours.

Airlines are considering seeking damages from ARINC, which has pledged to implement measures to prevent a recurrence and to conduct regular inspections.

On Tuesday, a failure in the Ministry of Justice's advance passenger information system left airlines unable to receive passenger data for about two hours, causing some flights to be delayed.

However, the corporation said it considers it unlikely that any of the three failures were caused by hacking.

"As the airport operator, we will work with relevant agencies to strengthen checks on departure-related systems and do our utmost to prevent similar incidents from recurring," the corporation said in a statement released Monday.


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