We’ve just learned that the Star Alliance plans to open a branded lounge at Seoul Incheon Airport (ICN), making it the second global alliance to operate a lounge at the airport, as there’s also the oneworld Lounge. This announcement shouldn’t come as much of a surprise, given that we needed to see some sort of a solution for the future of Star Alliance lounge access at the airport.
In this post:
Basics of the Star Alliance Lounge Seoul Incheon Airport
A Star Alliance Lounge is expected to open in Terminal 1 of Seoul Incheon Airport, by taking over the existing Asiana Airlines Business Lounge West. The expectation is that the lounge will open in the second half of December 2026.
What’s going on here is that Korean Air has acquired Asiana Airlines, and as of December 17, 2026, Asiana will formally cease to exist as a brand, and at that point, the airline will also leave the Star Alliance. The airlines have already co-located at Incheon Terminal 2, so operationally, that will be an easy transition.
Historically, Star Alliance carriers have primarily used Asiana for their contract lounges at the airport, despite the airline no longer flying out of Terminal 1. Still, the airline has continued to operate the lounges, but that will finally be changing.
The Star Alliance Lounge will serve passengers traveling with 14 Star Alliance member airlines serving Incheon Airport, connecting them to 29 destinations worldwide. The lounge will follow standard Star Alliance lounge access rules, so it’ll be open to Star Alliance Gold members, as well as all Star Alliance first and business class passengers.
This will be the seventh Star Alliance Lounge location worldwide, joining Guangzhou (CAN), Los Angeles (LAX), and Paris (CDG), as each of those airports has two lounges.
This is a logical solution, but don’t expect too much
Up until now, we didn’t have much of a sense of what the future Star Alliance lounge situation at Incheon would be. I figured a former Asiana Lounge would be vacated, and that it would be taken over by the alliance or an alliance carrier, so this makes perfect sense.
The one thing I’d mention is that it sounds like this lounge will immediately be transitioning from Asiana to Star Alliance, with no sort of a closure. That’s of course good in terms of being able to continuously serve customers. However, this also sounds like it’ll just be a hand-me-down lounge, so don’t expect much in the way of design or great features.
Admittedly it’s not like Star Alliance even has much of a lounge design concept in general, so I guess that’s not too off brand. I am curious if the lounge eventually undergoes a refresh, or what the long term plan is. In general, I’ve always found Asiana’s lounge network to be rather underwhelming.
For what it’s worth, this lounge has belonged to Priority Pass for quite some time, so only time will tell whether or not that partnership continues. Currently no Star Alliance Lounge locations participate in Priority Pass, so I’d lean toward “no,” but who knows.
Bottom line
The Star Alliance intends to open a lounge at Seoul Incheon Airport Terminal 1 in late 2026, essentially just taking over the space of the former Asiana Business Lounge West. With Asiana fully leaving the Star Alliance and the brand ceasing to exist, it’s logical that the airline will finally vacate the lounge in its former terminal.
So it’s good that there will continue to be a Star Alliance option, but this won’t be some existing, purpose built facility.
What do you make of plans for the Star Alliance Lounge Incheon?
There is something sad about Asiana going away. Was a cool local airline. Had quite a lot of fun flying their A380 to LAX couple years ago.