Incheon International Airport Corp. (IIAC) President and CEO Lee Hag-jae, left, shakes hands with Delta Air Lines CEO Edward Bastian during a strategic discussion to strengthen the Asia-Pacific air network in Atlanta, Ga., Wednesday. Joint Press Corps

ATLANTA – Incheon International Airport will replace Tokyo's Narita International Airport to become Delta Air Lines' Asia hub, the airport operator said Saturday.

Incheon International Airport Corp. (IIAC) President and CEO Lee Hag-jae visited Delta Air Lines CEO Ed Bastian in Atlanta, Wednesday, and confirmed the airline's strategic partnership with the airport to strengthen its Asia-Pacific air network and launch the Incheon-Salt Lake City air route next June.

"We think the Incheon hub is the best-connecting airport that's been built to connect customers efficiently and quickly and has the ability to continue to grow to other destinations within Asia," Delta's Networking Planning Senior Vice President Joe Esposito said during a press conference at the airline's headquarters in Atlanta, Thursday.

Unlike Tokyo, which has two airports — Narita and Haneda — Incheon has only one airport, which makes it easier to communicate with customers on transit means and demand, he explained.

"And Salt Lake City is also a perfect hub for the central part of the country for the Midwest part of the country that connects every region," Esposito said, explaining that every person in the United States who wants to go to Asia can catch a flight from either Delta or a Korean airline.

Delta has served flights to Incheon since 2007. It became the first foreign airline to sign a partnership agreement with the Korean airport in March 2018 to collaborate on initiatives to enhance the travel experience and make Incheon Asia's leading transit hub.

It then expanded its air network to Asia through a joint venture partnership — the strongest form of partnership among airlines, in which partners coordinate on route planning and share revenues on a route — with Korean Air in 2018.

Delta opened its Atlanta route in 2017 and increased the frequency of existing Detroit and Seattle flights, then added Minneapolis in 2019 and a second Atlanta route in 2024. It now plans to add more Salt Lake City routes in the summer of 2025.

Under the joint venture between the two full-service carriers, Incheon International Airport has received an average of 2,100 daily transit passengers, mostly for connecting flights to the Philippines, Vietnam, Thailand, Hong Kong and other Korean destinations.

Terminal 1 of Incheon International Airport bustles with travelers ahead of upcoming holidays, Sept. 27. Yonhap

Notably, the figure has nearly doubled since before the strategic partnership and exceeded the figure for Tokyo by more than 600.

"I am confident that Incheon Airport will be able to grow from a rapidly changing global aviation market to a global hub airport through cooperation with Delta Air Lines," Lee said.

"We will become a role model for aviation partnerships that share and cooperate with our vision to lead the global aviation market as a global representative airport and airline in the future."

"With the opening of a direct flight to Salt Lake City, which will be connected for the first time in Asia, Delta Air Lines has completed its Asia-Pacific hub base by connecting all four core hubs and Incheon," Esposito said.

"In the future, Delta Air Lines plans to continue expanding its routes to Incheon to explore the Asia-Pacific market."