Seoul - Incheon (Korea)

The Incheon airport is located very close to the border of North Korea. When flying approaches from the north care must be taken to avoid penetrating North Korean airspace.

Just in case you are not sure which of the flight controls is the most important for arrivals into Incheon, here is a hint:



When arriving at Incheon you will invariably be asked to descend quite early to facilitate climbing traffic. On occasion ATC may start stepping you down just after passing the FIR boundary at ATOTI. After having gone down early you will then be kept very high on profile as you approach the localizer. Full speed brake is required on almost every flight into Incheon.

Traffic can be a problem when operating in or out of Incheon. TAs or even RAs are not uncommon while on radar vectors.

Incheon is one of the few Asian airports affected by cold weather. Temperature during January or February can drop below -15°C and you will need to apply temperature corrections to approach minima and procedural altitudes. De-icing procedures are straight forward and efficient. The de-icing will be carried out on specially designated bays near the runway.

There is a minimum taxi speed of 10 knots on taxiways A, B, C and D.

• After passing ATOTI and once you have been radar identified, you will probably be cleared to maintain an offset 3 NM right of track until PATRO or NUMDA.
• All runways at Incheon have CAT 3B approaches (DH 0') with autoland. This is very important since Incheon is often affected by unforecast fog.
• Non-standard speed control is required at the TMA boundary and on descent passing 10,000 feet. The FMC will need to be corrected.
• Arrivals are normally flown to the easterly runway 15L/33R.
• If runway 33R is in use you can expect a <update required> arrival followed by radar vectors. During quiet periods you may be cleared for the full arrival. Plan to cross the TMA boundary waypoint at FL160 and 250 knots. Vectors for runway 15L can put you close to the North Korean border so placing a 12 mile ring around NCN is useful for monitoring the aircraft's position.
• If runway 15L is in use expect a <update required> arrival followed by radar vectors. Plan to cross MALPA at FL160 and 250 knots.
• If runway 16 is in use you can expect an OLMEN 1B arrival transitioning to the ILS 16. Initially you are offset by 3 nm right of track but you will be cleared direct to OLMEN waypoint. From OLMEN expect radar vectors starting with "Left turn heading 330 descend altitude 1,600 feet". The track miles depicted on the LNAV and progress is accurate based on the aforementioned arrival - there's no need to bring any waypoints to 1L nor 'DEP/ARR 6R' on the FMC. As the LNAV track approaches the base leg of the arrival, expect "Turn right, heading 060" and finally "Heading 120" to intercept the final approach course.

• For pushback ATC may clear you to "pushback to blue". The ground engineer will push you back to a blue line which is on an angle from the main taxiway line.
• Departures are normally flown from runway 16/34 or runway 15R/33L.
• {Boeing} Speed control on departure is 250 knots but the FMS default is 230 knots.
• From runway 16 expect a MALPA 1U RNAV departure.
• If runway 33 is used, expect a MALPA 1B RNAV [MALP1B] departure. This SID requires a minimum climb gradient of 6.3% to FL180. In practice, it is easy to make these restrictions even with reduced climb thrust.
• Recently many crews bound for Hong Kong are receiving the RADAR 3D departure from runway 34. Once airborne expect direct MALPA to join Y51. Note that MALPA is not on the LEGS page.
• For all departures to the north, close adherence to the SID is required to avoid flying into North Korean airspace.
• {Boeing} Entering the first few altitude restrictions on the FIX page is an easy way to keep track of the aircraft's climb performance.
• There are two types of icing fluid in use at ICN. The type one fluid is a generic SAE TYPE I (de-icing) which is usually diluted with water. The second type is KILLFROST TYPE IV ABC-S (anti-icing). The ground engineer will advise which fluid is in use.

• RKSS - Seoul Gimpo (079°/18NM) - This fair weather alternate is the primary alternate for Incheon.
• RKJK - Osan (182°/94NM) - USAF military airfield.
• RKPC - Jeju (187°/237NM) - Jeju is a civil airport located on an island in the southern part of Korea. Terrain is a very significant factor at Jeju where a nearby mountain rises to 6398 feet. There is an ILS approach to each runway. CIQ facilities are not available after 1800L but can be arranged in the event of a diversion.
• RJFF - Fukuoka (146°/304NM) - Fukuoka is often chosen as the alternate when the weather is marginal at Incheon. Flying time to Fukuoka is about 53 minutes. The diversion route will likely be via OSN-A582-IKE-A595-DGC and passes over the Busan airport. Note that Fukuoka may not accept diversions if they have too many aircraft on the ground. In this case Osaka Kansai would be a good choice.
• RJBB - Osaka, Kansai (118°/466NM) - Kansai is about 72 minutes flying time from Incheon and is open 24 hours.

ILS DMEs - The ILS DME for all four approaches are referenced to the far end of the runway. This can be very important during radar vectors to the north for runway 15L. The combination of poor radar vectors and the non-standard DME readout makes it very easy to misjudge the approach leading to late configuration or a possible go-around.

Procedural Arrival 33R - {B777} If you get a procedural arrival for runway 33R you may be tempted to use VNAV. This is not a good idea since much of the descent is on a steeper than idle path. This means that you will be fighting VNAV the whole way down and significantly increase the workload. The problem gets even worse if you need engine anti-ice. Be careful when setting MCP altitudes. ATC will likely clear you to 2900 feet and then clear you for the approach. If you are using FLCH, you will need to reset the MCP altitude to 7000 feet and carefully step down as per the procedure. ATC will occasionally give 6000 feet at KELLY.