Seoul airport transport guides

Seoul has two airports, and which one you land at decides most of your first day.

Which airport did you land at

Incheon
On Yeongjong Island. Seoul Station is KRW 4,750 from Terminal 1 and KRW 5,350 from Terminal 2.
Gimpo
Inside Seoul. Seoul Station is KRW 1,750, and Lines 5 and 9 stop there too.
Transit card first
From either airport, buying one in the arrivals hall makes everything after it easier.
Between the two
AREX connects them directly — Gimpo to Incheon Terminal 1 is KRW 4,350.

Getting out of the airport

AREX serves both airports, and at each the station is one level below arrivals. What differs is the distance, and therefore the fare: Incheon Airport is on Yeongjong Island, and Gimpo is inside the city.

The fare tables and the step-by-step are in the two guides below. Both read their figures directly from the same published AREX tariff, so when a fare changes, both change with it.

What you need once you are in the city

Getting out of the airport is only the start. One transit card carries you through subways, buses and convenience stores, and the subway's transfer rules are what you meet most often on a first day. The third and fourth guides below cover those.

What is missing here, and why

The express train's journey time does check out — 43 minutes from Incheon Terminal 1 to Seoul Station, identical on all 52 trains in the operator's timetable.

What is missing: route-by-route bus fares and the express fare are drawn by JavaScript on the operators' own sites and never reach the served document, and the all-stop train's per-station journey times are unavailable for the same reason. Figures that could not be checked are left out, so read them off the boards and ticket machines in the arrivals hall on the day.