Seoul Gimpo Airport Guide: The Capital’s Domestic Workhorse
Seoul Gimpo Airport handles the Jeju shuttle and short flights to Tokyo and Shanghai from inside the city. Read about its runways, terminals and routes.
By The Aviation Hub
7 min read
Updated October 20, 2026 
Seoul Gimpo Airport was the main gateway to South Korea for more than 40 years, until Incheon opened in 2001 and took the long haul traffic. It has since found a second life as the capital’s close in airport, handling the enormous Jeju shuttle and a select group of short international routes to city centre airports in Tokyo, Shanghai, Osaka, Taipei and Beijing. Around 23 million passengers used it in 2023. Two long runways, a subway station under the terminal and a position inside the city keep it indispensable.
Seoul Gimpo Airport at a Glance
The codes are GMP and RKSS. Seoul Gimpo Airport lies in the Gangseo district on the western edge of the city, about 10 miles (16 km) west of the centre and well inside the metropolitan area, at an elevation of 18 m (59 ft). It has two parallel asphalt runways, a domestic terminal, an international terminal and a cargo terminal. The name comes from the neighbouring city of Gimpo, which the airport once belonged to, and older timetables still spell it Kimpo.
In 2023 the airport handled around 23.4 million passengers on roughly 135,000 movements, with 2024 traffic a little higher. Korean Air and Asiana Airlines both use it as a hub for their domestic networks, T’way Air treats it as a focus city, and Jeju Air, Jin Air and Eastar Jet keep bases here. Korea Airports Corporation, the state company that runs every Korean airport except Incheon, operates the field and has its headquarters on the site. Flight status, parking and the terminal shops are on the airport’s official website.
How Seoul’s Older Airport Came to Be
The Japanese Imperial Army built the airfield in 1939 during the colonial period, on flat farmland by the Han River. After liberation it served the United States forces and then changed hands several times during the Korean War, when it was one of the most fought over airfields in the country. A presidential decree in 1958 designated it Seoul’s international airport, replacing the cramped Yeouido field in the city centre, and the official opening date is given as 30 January 1958.
Gimpo grew with the Korean economy. Korean Air was privatised and based here in 1969, Asiana followed in 1988, and the 1988 Seoul Olympics brought a new international terminal and a surge of foreign carriers. A night curfew that had closed the field between midnight and four in the morning was lifted in 1982, though a later and stricter curfew now applies. By the 1990s the airport was full, surrounded by apartment towers and unable to expand, which led directly to the building of Incheon on reclaimed islands to the west.
Incheon’s opening in March 2001 moved almost all international flights away and left Gimpo as a domestic airport with empty halls. The revival began in 2003 with a shuttle to Tokyo Haneda, followed by Shanghai Hongqiao, Osaka Kansai, Beijing and Taipei Songshan. The formula of linking city centre airports with short flights proved popular with business travellers, and the international terminal has been expanded more than once since.
Runways at Seoul Gimpo Airport
Seoul Gimpo Airport has two parallel asphalt runways aligned north west to south east. Runway 14L/32R is the longer at 3,600 m (11,811 ft) and 45 m wide, while 14R/32L is 3,200 m (10,499 ft) and 60 m wide. Both can handle wide bodies, and Korean Air and Asiana regularly use Boeing 777s, Airbus A330s and even the A380 on peak Jeju flights, which makes the field unusual among domestic airports.
The runways are close together and are not used for independent parallel approaches, so the airport normally lands on one and departs from the other. Approaches to the 32 runways come in from the south east over the apartment blocks of western Seoul, while the 14 approaches arrive from the north west over Gimpo city. A night curfew keeps the field quiet from late evening until early morning, and the schedule is compressed into a long and very busy day.
Terminals and Airlines
The domestic terminal is the larger and busier of the two, a long building with Korean Air and its subsidiary Jin Air at one end and Asiana with its low cost arm Air Busan at the other. Jeju Air, T’way Air, Eastar Jet and Air Seoul fill the middle with Boeing 737 and Airbus A320 family aircraft. The terminal connects directly to the subway and to the Lotte Mall complex next door.
The international terminal stands a short walk or shuttle ride away and feels like a small, calm airport in its own right. Korean Air, Asiana, Japan Airlines, All Nippon Airways, China Eastern, Shanghai Airlines, Air China, China Southern, Eva Air, China Airlines and a handful of Korean low cost carriers use it. Lounges are modest compared with Incheon, but the whole point of Seoul Gimpo Airport is that passengers spend less time in the building.
Routes and Destinations
Jeju is the dominant route by a staggering margin. In 2024 more than 15 million passengers flew between Gimpo and the holiday island, a figure that places the pair at or near the top of the world’s busiest routes year after year. Flights depart every few minutes in the morning peak, many of them on wide bodies. Busan is a distant second at around 2.8 million, followed by Ulsan, Yeosu and Sacheon.
Internationally, Tokyo Haneda led in 2024 with around 1.9 million passengers, then Osaka Kansai, Shanghai Hongqiao, Taipei Songshan and Beijing Capital, while China Southern adds Beijing Daxing. The Haneda service was suspended in 2020 and resumed in June 2022. There is no long haul and cargo is small, with heavy freight handled at Incheon.
Getting to and from Seoul Gimpo Airport
The subway is the obvious choice and the cheapest sensible option at a standard fare of a little over KRW 1,500 (roughly £1). Line 5 reaches the city centre in about 35 to 40 minutes and Line 9 express trains run to Gangnam in around 30 minutes. The AREX airport railway links Gimpo with Seoul Station in one direction and Incheon Airport in the other, which makes transfers between the two airports simple at around 40 minutes.
Limousine buses run to hotels across the city and to Incheon. Taxis to central Seoul cost around KRW 25,000 to 35,000 (roughly £14 to £19) and take 30 to 50 minutes depending on the Olympic daero expressway along the Han River. The airport has large multi storey and surface car parks beside both terminals, and road access comes via the Incheon International Airport Expressway and national routes 39 and 48.
Spotting and Photography
The domestic terminal at Seoul Gimpo Airport has an observation deck with views across the apron to the runways, and the roof of the Lotte Mall complex gives a wider panorama. Outside the fence, public streets under the 32 approaches in western Seoul and on the Gimpo city side under the 14 approaches offer approach photography. The Lotte City Hotel beside the terminal has rooms facing the airfield.
The attraction for enthusiasts is the volume of wide bodies on a domestic route. Korean Air 777s and A330s, Asiana A350s and A330s and the occasional A380 all operate the Jeju shuttle alongside a parade of low cost 737s and A321neos. Morning light suits the eastern side and afternoon the river side. Parts of the airfield are restricted, so stay on public ground and do not photograph security areas.
What Comes Next
Korea Airports Corporation has expanded and remodelled the terminals in stages since 2013, adding gates and security lanes, and announced a new domestic focused terminal in 2017 to cope with the Jeju traffic. The international terminal continues to be upgraded as the city airport routes recover. The curfew and the surrounding housing rule out new runways or any return to long haul.
The verdict is that Seoul Gimpo Airport will keep doing one thing very well, moving people between the capital and Jeju and a few nearby cities with minimal fuss. Compare it with Incheon, Haneda and other city airports on the Airports of the World map.
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