Incheon International Airport is seeing its status as a key transportation hub in Northeast Asia being eroded at an alarming pace. The number of transit passengers using the airport, located 70 km west of Seoul, decreased by about 460,000 from a year earlier to 7.25 million last year.

Except for 2010, the figure had increased by double digits every year since 2006. The portion of transit passengers fell to 16 percent of airport users last year from a peak of 18.7 percent in 2013.

The erosion of its status as a hub airport can be attributed largely to mounting competition from airports in neighboring countries. Its rivals in China and Japan have strengthened efforts to increase the number of direct flights to overseas cities and connections to local destinations.

The Japanese government last year announced an ambitious plan to increase the number of foreign cities connected by flights to and from Narita and Haneda airports from the current 88 to 140 by 2020. China’s airports, including those in Beijing and Shanghai, have also increased their numbers of flights to cities in the U.S. and Southeast Asia.

In the face of this rising competition, Incheon Airport has done little to enhance its competitiveness, with the presidency of its operator having remained vacant for about eight months until October. The previous president of Incheon International Airport Corp., a former vice transportation minister, quit the job months after taking office to run for a gubernatorial post in the June location elections. The incumbent head of the state-funded corporation, who served as mayor of a provincial city, has been criticized for lacking the expertise needed to run the airport.

It may be necessary to make the selection process more independent and transparent to ensure that more competent and qualified figures will be appointed to the top management job. The new IIAC president should do his utmost to prove he is the right choice by reversing the downward trend in the number of transit passengers.

In terms of global standards, the portion of transit passengers should exceed 30 percent for an airport to be categorized as a world-class hub airport. A broad range of efforts should be made to ensure that Incheon Airport keeps ahead of its regional rivals in their intensifying competition. An idea worth considering might be to allow foreign transit passengers to stay here for a certain period without a visa.

Last year, Incheon Airport won an international service quality award for the ninth consecutive year, a record claimed by no other airport in the world. During the award ceremony, an executive of the airport’s operator described the unprecedented feat as “a milestone for us.” The airport has yet to reach a truly meaningful milestone.