Gimpo airport international flights: rationed, not unwanted

Gimpo airport has international flights, but only to a short list of cities in Japan, China and Taiwan. The government keeps it that short. A transport ministry rule admits only foreign airports within 2,000 km of Gimpo with a route both governments agreed, and a route the industry wants can still be missing. No Gimpo route to Southeast Asia is on record.

Gimpo airport international flights: the routes on record

These are the Gimpo international routes that an airline notice or a news report puts on record for 2026, read on 6 October 2026.

Asiana’s schedule notice, posted 27 August 2026, lists three daily Gimpo to Haneda flight pairs, two daily Gimpo to Kansai pairs, and daily flights from Gimpo to Beijing and to Shanghai Hongqiao.

Peach raised Gimpo to Osaka Kansai to four round trips a day from 1 February 2026 and flies Gimpo to Nagoya Chubu twice a day. T’way flies Gimpo to Taipei Songshan and to Kaohsiung four times a week each, on Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Sunday.

Asiana’s notice names the Beijing route without naming the Beijing airport. A May 2024 Newsis report listed both Beijing Capital and Beijing Daxing among Gimpo’s destinations, so treat the Beijing airport as not confirmed here. Other airlines fly some of these routes too; the table holds only the ones read on a source.

Why is there no Gimpo flight from Manila, Singapore or Jakarta?

Because a transport ministry instruction only allows Gimpo international flights to foreign airports within 2,000 km of Gimpo, with a route agreed between the two governments. The instruction is No. 1346, “rules on international charter flights at Gimpo Airport”, dated 21 December 2020, the newest version this page found on Korea’s national law database. Article 1 of the same instruction calls Gimpo an airport in use as a domestic airport.

Article 5 of the instruction sets three conditions, and a destination has to meet all three:

1. The airport is within a 2,000 km radius of Gimpo.
2. Korea and the other country have agreed, through an air agreement or similar, to open a route between that airport and Gimpo.
3. The country has a visa waiver with Korea (a partial one counts), a free trade agreement, or a pre-clearance arrangement, or is negotiating one.

Article 4 explains the word “charter” in the title. Gimpo’s international flights run as charters, mainly regular ones that fly like a schedule. Private charters and special-event charters may also fly on reciprocity with the other country, and small carriers’ package-tour charters can be licensed when they are not regular. Other international charters are not licensed at Gimpo, so that they use Incheon.

Newsis reported in May 2024 that the instruction was first made on 12 November 2003, and that the stated reason was to avoid affecting Incheon’s role as Korea’s hub airport.

The 2,000 km limit is not the only gate. Kookmin Ilbo reported in July 2026 that there is no Gimpo to Fukuoka route, although the industry wants one and the airport has room for it, because Incheon’s hub policy and other factors are tangled up in the decision. Fukuoka is in Japan, a country already on Gimpo’s list. Being close is only the first condition.

This page did not measure the distance from Gimpo to any city. The closest thing to a reading comes from the 2024 reports on Seoul’s proposal for a 3,000 km limit. Segye News wrote that it would open routes to Guangzhou and Hong Kong, and quoted a Seoul official saying Singapore could eventually become possible. Newsis added Hanoi. By those reports, all four sit outside 2,000 km today. Manila and Jakarta were not named in either report.

Is Gimpo airport domestic or international?

Gimpo airport is both: Seoul’s domestic airport, with a short list of international flights to Japan, China and Taiwan attached.

If you are choosing between Seoul’s two airports for a trip, the comparison of transport into the city, late arrivals and distance is on the Gimpo vs Incheon page. The two terminals also differ in lounges: the Priority Pass lounges are on the international side, as the Gimpo airport lounge page sets out.

Which country does Gimpo International Airport serve?

Outside Korea, Gimpo International Airport serves Japan, China and Taiwan on every route this page found. Those three countries meet the instruction’s conditions for the cities on the list: close enough, with a route agreed, and with a visa or trade arrangement with Korea.

Seats on those routes sell. Travel Daily reported in May 2026 that T’way’s Gimpo to Taipei Songshan flights had a 95% load factor in 2025 and its Gimpo to Kaohsiung flights 93%. An official at a budget airline told Energy Economic News in February 2025 that the industry has a saying: one Gimpo route is enough for an airline to make a living.

Will Gimpo get flights to Southeast Asia?

Not under the rule as published. The newest version of the instruction found on the national law database on 6 October 2026 says 2,000 km and carries the December 2020 date.

The Seoul city government proposed widening the limit to 3,000 km in February 2024, and Segye News reported that the city planned to ask the transport ministry in the second half of 2024. Seoul told Hankyung Magazine the plan was not yet confirmed and that the ministry’s instruction would need revising. Yangcheon-gu, a Seoul district near the airport, objected over aircraft noise.

This page found no record that the request was filed and no ministry decision, so treat 3,000 km as a city proposal rather than a rule.

Flying from Southeast Asia: you land at Incheon

A flight from Manila, Singapore or Jakarta to Seoul lands at Incheon, because no Gimpo international route on record reaches Southeast Asia. The routes into the city from there, with the airport railroad fares and times, are on the Incheon airport to Seoul page. Busan is the exception outside Seoul: Gimhae has direct flights from Manila, Cebu, Singapore and Bali, listed on the Busan airport international flights page.

If your onward flight within Korea leaves from Gimpo, the transfer between the two airports is on the Incheon to Gimpo transfer page. Travellers from Indonesia will find the visa and arrival steps on the Korea from Indonesia page.

What is not checked here

The three conditions and the charter rule come from the instruction on Korea’s national law database, read on 6 October 2026. The routes come from Asiana’s own notice, a Peach press release and two news reports.

Korean Air, Korean budget airlines other than T’way, Japan Airlines, ANA, Chinese, Taiwanese and Southeast Asian carriers were not checked, so the table may be missing airlines, and a route none of the checked sources mentions. Gimpo’s own route list on the airport operator’s site did not load as readable text and was not used. No distance from Gimpo to any city was calculated here.

The 2024 proposal comes from news reports, not from a city or ministry document, and this page found no ministry answer to it. The law database page shows no “in force” label that this page could read, so a revision after December 2020 is not ruled out. The 2003 start date comes from Newsis; the instruction’s own amendment notes on the database begin later. Which Beijing airport Asiana uses from Gimpo is not confirmed, and Asiana’s notice says its schedule can change at any time.

If you find a Gimpo international route that is missing here, or the limit changes, tell me and this page will say so with a date.