HyundaiCard Air Lounge

The World Airport Awards 2012 presented in Vienna by SkyTrax feature 6 Asian airports amongst the top 10. All terminals boast modern, cutting edge infrastructures, where the difference, judged directly on passengers’ feedback, emerges from the high quality customer service aimed at travellers. The Incheon International Airport of Seoul stood out in the rankings and won ‘best airport in the world ‘ for the second time (the first was in 2009). It’s the largest airport in South Korea, and one of the busiest in the world. It has been voted best airport in the world by Airports Council International for seven years running (2005 - 2012) and has been granted 5 stars by SkyTrax, an award shared only by Hong Kong International Airport and Singapore Changi Airport. It features everything that you would not expect from an airport: a golf course, wellness centre, private bedrooms, iceskating rink, a casino, indoor gardens, and a museum dedicated to Korean culture. A very special departure lounge, with a design and services that make it unique in its kind, is located on the second floor of the terminal’s central area. This is certainly a feather in the cap of an airport that earned such positive feedback from its customers. The lounge offers HyundaiCard holders an exclusive relaxing atmosphere before they take off on their journey. A safe haven with a simple and elegant design, free of noise or commotion, located within the confines of an independent “black box”. Like a perfectly packed suitcase, this cleverly arranged space offers information, accessories and entertainment necessary to guarantee a truly pleasurable travelling experience. Unlike the VIP lounges of more traditional airline companies, HyundaiCard Air Lounge is more than just a static waiting area, it’s an ideal location to quietly go about one’s business, buy a present or update and plan travel details. But that’s not all, it also offers gifts, travel items, luggage storage, free Internet access, a fax and local call service, refreshments and free snacks. A lounge, not only for relaxing or sipping a beverage, but also for stocking up on last minute travel items via an exclusive rental system, the unique M-Point Product Service Exchange created especially for HyundaiCard, which allows customers to buy or rent items that are necessary for travel as they walk through the lounge, just like a specialist store. HyundaiCard Air Lounge exceeds the template for traditional departure lounges by combining specific lounge, retail and museum services. The artistic films of Hiraki Sawa and the personalised flight monitoring system are fantastic, whilst two virtual skylights mimic the ghostly movement of the colours of the sky, playing with the space’s ethereal atmosphere. Behind the idea and implementation of the concept was a world famous American design firm, Gensler: a collective of architects, designers, engineers and consultants which boasts around 3,000 projects a year and consists of over 3,000 professionals, 42 headquarters in 5 networked continents with localised expertise, but characterised by the global perspective of innovative design. In the AIA Institute Honor Awards, the American Institute of Architects (AIA) awarded Gensler’s design for the HyundaiCard Air Lounge, among 700 other projects, the highest recognition for works that exemplify architectural excellence, interior design and urban design, defining it “a project with an innovative approach towards the arrangement of airline lounges, which establishes unique rapport between passenger and space”. That’s not all: Gensler won the bid for Incheon Airport’s new Terminal 2, with an elegant and practical project, remarkable for its sustainable design features. The expansion includes a second control tower, a train station, parking spaces, a hotel and a conference centre. The inauguration of the new terminal is scheduled to take place in 2017, a year which will see a new technological and stylistic accomplishment for the renowned airport.

Incheon International Airport di Seoul. Nel terminal passeggeri, al secondo piano nella zona centrale spicca una lounge davvero particolare, unica nel suo genere, per design e servizi. La lounge offre ai membri HyundaiCard un ambiente esclusivo di relax prima di spiccare il volo e intraprendere il viaggio. Un’isola felice senza trambusto e rumori, dal design elegante e semplice, disposta entro i confini di una "scatola nera" indipendente.