MASKS ALSO NOW MANDATORY ON AIRPLANES

[Anchor Lead]

In addition to the riders of public transportation like buses and taxi cabs, all airplane passengers must wear masks as well. A look around the airport showed that passengers were already used to wearing masks, and airport and airline employees were accustomed to no-contact boarding procedures that minimize contact with passengers.

[Pkg]

​The domestic departure area at Gimpo International Airport... Almost everyone here is wearing a mask. More passengers use self-service check-in kiosks than those who prefer conventional check-in counters. Ticketing is not even needed if a passenger uses a mobile app to assign a seat in advance.

[Soundbite] AHN BYEONG-WOOK(AIRPORT USER) : "I’m still worried about hygiene, although they must have been thorough. I’m trying to avoid contact as much as possible."

Passengers don’t have to take off their masks when entering security areas. All they have to do is simply place their palm on the scanner for bio-authentication. Passengers receive their boarding passes verified on their mobile phones and have them approved through the registered palm veins. There is no need for additional ID checks or facial recognition. In the first four months of this year, the use of the bio-authentication service exceeded 17 percent. That's nearly double the rate recorded last year.

[Soundbite] JEONG YEON-GYU(KOREA AIRPORTS CORPORATION) : "Bio-authentication users can go through exclusive airport security checks faster and at greater convenience."

Passengers don’t need to hand over their boarding passes to airline employees at the boarding gate. Instead, they scan the bar codes themselves. Incheon International Airport has also introduced a smart baggage scale so that passengers can check in their luggage without talking to airline employees. The scale measures the weight and size of baggage and determines whether it can be carried on board. On the first day of the mask-wearing rule for airplane passengers masks at the airport convenience stores and pharmacies were sold out, but no passenger was denied boarding.