From next year at the earliest, passengers using Incheon International Airport

will be able to depart without their passport and boarding pass with them as the airport devices can recognize their faces when they go through the departure procedure.

In addition, they will be able to use a delivery service to have their luggage sent to and from the airport. AI chatbots will provide around-the-clock airport guide services via  Kakao Talk. From 2023, robots will provide valet parking services.

These are some of the smart services that Incheon International Airport Corporation will provide in the near future based on Industry 4.0 technology. The corporation has disclosed 100 tasks it would undertake in the next five years to introduce innovative airport services, including home check-in, biometric recognition-based immigration clearance and self-service duty-free shops.

The corporation is planning to launch the Smart Pass service early next year so that pre-registered facial recognition data can take the place of boarding passes and passports. In 2020, the pre-registration of faces will become unnecessary as the South Korean government’s biometric information service will be available.

In 2023, tunnel-type security screening will be introduced so that security screening can be completed simply by passage through a tunnel. Passengers will not have to be scanned separately from their belongings.

The home check-in service is planned to be tested from the second half of this year, when 14 AI chatbots and intelligent CCTVs for immediate security threat response are put into operation at the airport.

Self-driving vehicles will make their debut in the passenger terminal area next year, and the parking robot-based valet parking and the IoT-based duty-free shops are available from 2023.