'Air city' planned around Seoul Incheon airport grounds

— -- Officials at Seoul's Incheon International are planning to transform airport grounds into an "air city," complete with apartments, shops, recreational facilities and businesses.

Incheon International, one of the world's largest airports, has enough land — about the size of Manhattan— to make the vision a reality. About 20,000 people, many of them airport employees, already live in the apartment buildings that sit on the land.

The airport recently broke ground on a fashion complex that will house designer studios, fashion show runways and a convention center. In partnership with MGM, the airport will also build a new amusement park.

With the airport overlooking the Yellow Sea, the project also envisions a marina for yacht and sailing enthusiasts. A medical center to capitalize on the rise in medical tourism is also planned. It will provide commonly sought treatments and services that don't require long hospitalization, such as Lasik operations, Asian herbal medicine and eyelid surgery (common among Asians who want their eyes to appear larger and rounder).

The facilities and the airport terminal will be connected by a new magnetic levitation train system. The air city project is scheduled for completion in 2020.

The new plans are part of the airport's goal to become a major international hub that draws more transfer passengers. The global recession has hit Asia hard, and the airport's passenger traffic fell 10% in the first seven months of this year compared with a year ago. The decline was offset by a 32% increase in transfer passengers, says Michelle Mi Sung Wee, a marketing official at Incheon.

The airport has been selected "Best Airport Worldwide" by Airports Council International four years in a row largely because of its services and amenities for transfer passengers. They can use free showers, soak in hot tubs in a Korean-style spa or nap at an in-terminal hotel that rents rooms in six-hour blocks.

•Atlanta Hartsfield-Jackson