Heavy fog in the west coast of Gyeonggi Province and other inland parts of Korea on Saturday and Sunday led to a massive volume of flight cancellations and delays at Incheon Airport, causing a three-day chain effect lasting to Christmas Day.

The fog is now gone, but the impact is still reverberating at the country’s biggest airport.

According to airport authorities, on Monday, 280 flights were delayed due to rescheduling and two were canceled due to a lack of reservations, as of 1 p.m.

On Saturday, 562 flights were either canceled or postponed. On Sunday, another 560 were canceled or delayed. If Monday’s figure is included, a total of 1,400 flights were affected by the fog during the Christmas holiday.

Following the dense fog, airport authorities mobilized 120 employees and operated the compound around the clock for 24 hours in emergency mode. The express rail connecting the airport to Seoul was operated until 3 a.m., beyond its regular hours, and temporary accommodation was set up inside the airport.

Flights delayed Saturday all took off Sunday, and the airport saw a record number of flights in a day.

On Saturday, 595 flights departed from Incheon Airport and 568 flights landed, with the total number of flights passing through the airport hitting 1,163. Previously, 1,114 was the record set in October 2017. 

By Lim Jeong-yeo (kaylalim@heraldcorp.com)