About the Store
SkyHub Lounge is an airport lounge at Incheon International Airport, operated by Pulmuone Food&Culture (풀무원푸드앤컬처). Pulmuone Food&Culture runs food and beverage businesses across major venues including Incheon Airport, Gimpo Airport, and resorts, along with 25 highway rest stops nationwide, all guided by a mission to expand healthy eating and food culture.
As travel rebounded after the pandemic, airport passenger numbers — and lounge visits along with them — surged. The team quickly ran into the limits of managing the waitlist by hand.
Adopting NowWaiting
Manual lists couldn’t keep up with the growing queue. The team turned to NowWaiting (나우웨이팅) to use KakaoTalk notifications for estimated wait times and pre-entry alerts. At the same time, they began accumulating visitor data to use as operational insight.
Results — Improvements Across 3 Areas
- Operational efficiency — No need for a staff member to stand at the entrance; alerts and call-ups can be handled from a tablet while staff cover other tasks.
- Better guest experience — Estimated wait times and pre-entry alerts let guests spend the wait doing something else.
- Stronger service for international guests — A new English-language flow opened the lounge to a wider international audience.
From the Owner
No matter how you frame it, waiting in line is uncomfortable for the customer. NowWaiting turns that discomfort into a positive experience.
Full Interview
Today we visited somewhere a little different — SkyHub Lounge at Incheon International Airport. As post-pandemic travel rebounded, airport passenger numbers jumped sharply, and so did lounge visits. Hearing that the team had eased the burden on waiting guests by adopting NowWaiting, we made the trip out to Incheon Airport to learn more.
Here is the story of SkyHub Lounge and NowWaiting.
Q. Nice to meet you. Could you introduce yourself and SkyHub Lounge?
Hello. I’m Kim Tae-won, the store manager in charge of day-to-day operations at SkyHub Lounge.
Before introducing SkyHub Lounge, let me say a quick word about our parent company, Pulmuone Food&Culture. With a mission to expand Pulmuone’s healthy eating and food culture, the company operates food and beverage businesses inside major venues like Incheon Airport, Gimpo Airport, and resorts, as well as 25 highway rest stops nationwide, including Gwangju and Yangpyeong.
Incheon Airport has recently been remodeled to bring it closer to travelers, and it is becoming an important space for delivering Pulmuone’s values to airport guests.
Q. The mission of “expanding healthy eating and food culture” lines up nicely with growing public interest in health. What is SkyHub Lounge doing to support that?
That’s right. SkyHub Lounge offers interesting and thoughtful food options that fit that mission.
Our Earth Diet Corner runs a plant-forward zone built around plant-based options, including dumplings made entirely from plants and high-protein tofu dishes such as tofu-noodle ragu pasta and crispy tofu sticks. Guests can also enjoy our Jeju Planet Corner, which features desserts made with Jeju specialty ingredients. We also serve familiar favorites like Coca-Cola, Pulmuone bottled water, and Nongshim cup noodles to meet broader needs. Through these vegan and regional corners, guests get a new kind of food experience — tasty and healthy at the same time.
Q. We were a bit surprised to hear that SkyHub Lounge had adopted NowWaiting. It’s a tool usually associated with popular restaurants and pop-ups. Do you really see that much waiting at the lounge?
Yes. Airport visitors generally fall into two groups: those who arrive just in time for their flight, and those who arrive early and use the airport’s shopping, culture, and other amenities. As airports become broader cultural spaces, the second group keeps growing. As more people shop and explore, more of them look for a place to rest, which has pushed lounge visits well above what they used to be.
We hit the limits of running the waitlist by hand and decided to bring in NowWaiting. KakaoTalk notifications with estimated wait times and pre-entry alerts give us operational ease and give guests a more positive experience.
There was another reason too — visitor data. Customer management matters for a lounge as well. NowWaiting tells us how often a guest has visited and when they last came in, and we use that data to find store-level insights and feed our marketing.
Q. So NowWaiting fits anywhere there’s a queue. Anything you’d tell business owners who are considering it?
After bringing in NowWaiting, three differences stand out compared with the old way.
First, operational efficiency. We used to need someone permanently stationed at the entrance to manage the queue. Now alerts and call-ups happen on a tablet, so staff can handle other tasks at the same time.
Second, a more positive guest experience. No matter how you frame it, waiting in line is uncomfortable. With estimated wait times and pre-entry alerts, guests no longer have to stand in front of the store doing nothing. That turns the wait from an inconvenience into something positive.
Third, the launch of an international-traveler service. The lounge used to run only in Korean, but the new English-language flow now lets international travelers join the waitlist too. Most of our guests have been domestic, but we see this as a starting point for raising the share of international visitors.
Q. Thank you for taking the time. Anything you’d like to add?
I really enjoyed this interview. The next time you’re flying through Incheon Airport, please drop by SkyHub Lounge. Beyond the variety of food, we offer plenty of workspace and rest space, with tailored services for both quick work sessions and a moment of recovery.
The west wing is open 24/7 and the east wing from 07:00 to 22:00. Come by and start your trip with us at SkyHub Lounge.
Visiting SkyHub Lounge gave us a fresh look at waitlisting in a new kind of space. With so much culture and shopping to explore, it’s a reminder to leave a little extra time at the airport — and to make sure SkyHub Lounge is part of the plan.