Can fans ever keep their distance from K-pop stars at airports?

Fast-forwarded footage of the crowd following boy band AHOF at Gimpo International Airport in western Seoul on Aug. 8 [SHIN HA-NEE]

 
“If you’re not flying, please leave the line!” bodyguards shouted, voices sharp over the early-morning ruckus playing out at Gimpo International Airport in western Seoul. It was 6:50 a.m. on Friday, and rookie boy band AHOF was attempting to make its way to the security checkpoint, flanked by guards pushing against a flood of fans.
 
Smartphones, held high like lightsticks, documented every step of the idols’ journey, from a brief photo session to their slow advance toward the security gates. Fans and reporters trailed behind the group like a school of small fish while puzzled travelers, simply trying to catch their morning flights, were swept up in the chaos.

 

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The scene lasted for about 10 minutes, but the crowd had been in the making for much longer.

 

Boy band AHOF poses for photos at Gimpo International Airport in western Seoul on Aug. 8, ahead of its trip to Japan for promotional events. [NEWS1]

 
By 6:20 a.m., not long after the sun cleared the horizon, there had already been at least two dozen people clustered near Gate 1 of the airport. Some were holding slogans for their favorite boy band, others gripping what appeared to be high-end cameras.

 
When a dark van pulled up to the curb, many flocked outside the gate with their lenses raised, but it was a false alarm.
 
Meanwhile, through Gate 3, Twice’s Sana appeared at around 6:30 a.m., wearing a white cap. The crowd there instantly chased her up to the third floor, rushing up the stairs, cameras clicking rapidly as she took the escalator.  

 

Fast-forwarded footage of the crowd following girl group Twice's Sana at Gimpo International Airport in western Seoul on Aug. 8 [SHIN HA-NEE]

 
And that was only the beginning.

 
Even after AHOF’s fans shouted “Goodbye” and “Have a safe flight,” the crowd barely thinned. Roughly two-thirds of the crowd stayed put, with some standing on ladders and stools for a better view.

 
Over the speakers, the airport repeated announcements warning against the thick crowd and the use of ladders, yet no one budged.  

 
Soon enough, the full roster of SM Entertainment’s acts began to arrive one by one, set to depart for Japan to perform at the SMTown 2025 Live concert in Tokyo.

 

NCT member Jisung is seen on his way to Tokyo, Japan, for the SMTown 2025 Live concert at Gimpo International Airport in western Seoul on Aug. 8.

 
‘This will never change’

 
While travelers seemed largely awed and intrigued by the rare sight, the airport’s daily workers appeared far from impressed.

 
“This happens almost every day, perhaps except for a day or two in a month,” said an airport worker who spoke on condition of anonymity, as he wasn’t authorized to comment publicly.

 
“I hear there are constant complaints, a lot of them, but there’s no solution to this,” he said with a helpless laugh. “This will never change.”
 

Fans are seen gathered outside the Gimpo International Airport in western Seoul on Aug. 8 [SHIN HA-NEE]

 
True to his words, such a spectacle is almost a daily ritual at both Gimpo and Incheon International Airports, where K-pop artists constantly come and go for their packed overseas schedules — and so are the ever-present controversies that follow.

 
In a livestream on fan platform Weverse on July 28, V directly addressed the issue, saying, “Airports aren’t private spaces. Everyone uses them.”

 
Earlier that month, the BTS member’s outing at the Incheon International Airport, en route to Paris, drew a massive crowd that trailed him with smartphones raised.

 

BTS member V arrives at Incheon International Airport to leave the country for overseas schedule on July 4. [NEWS1]

V mentioned the Purple Line campaign, a fan-led effort to voluntarily keep a safe distance from artists, urging, “If fans could help bring back that kind of orderly culture, I’d really appreciate it.”

 
SM’s rookie girl group Hearts2Hearts was also embroiled in a controversy back in March, when a traveler, unable to pass through the terminal due to the crowd, shouted in frustration, “We need to depart as well!” with profanity, fueling online debate over the disruption caused by celebrities’ airport appearances.  

 

A bodyguard for girl group Hearts2Hearts is shown restraining a fan at Incheon International Airport, left, and a female fan posted pictures of bruises on her arms claiming that they were from a bodyguard for the group. [SCREEN CAPTURES]

 
Roughly three months later, the girl group once again found itself in hot water, this time due to allegedly excessive action by security staff as a female fan claimed that a bodyguard had assaulted her. SM Entertainment countered that she was an obsessive fan, or a so-called sasaeng, which the fan denied.

 
Airport turns mini runway

 
Long before the practice of fans flocking to airports for a glimpse of their idols was a media ritual that began in the early 2010s, where reporters photographed stars in so-called “airport fashion.”

 

NCT member Renjun is seen on his way to Tokyo, Japan, for the SMTown 2025 Live concert at the Gimpo International Airport in western Seoul on Aug. 8. [NEWS1]

Celebrities would arrive in impeccable style, treating the airport as informal runways, ultimately leading to sellouts of whatever they wore, which made the practice a crucial advertising opportunity for many brands. Reporters took it up a notch over the past decade, often launching livestreams of the scene hours before artists’ arrival.

 
Now, the airport runway is nearly a formal part of the promotional calendar. The dynamic escalated further when fans began securing arrival details through illicit channels — some of which were found to be operated by airline insiders in a recently uncovered case in March — to get a glimpse of their favorite stars.

 

Boy band AHOF is seen at the Gimpo International Airport in western Seoul on Aug. 8, on its way to Japan for promotional events. [NEWS1]

While there have been fan-led campaigns urging others to avoid airport content back in the mid-to-late 2010s, the movement has largely fizzled, resurfacing only occasionally among a minority of fans.

 
The rapid growth of K-pop’s global fan base, idols’ expanding brand ambassadorships, the influx of photographers seeking to meet fans’ constant demand for images and the technological leaps in smartphone cameras created a perfect storm at airports, according to Kim Jung-won, an ethnomusicologist specializing in K-pop culture at Yonsei University.

 
“The issue of sasaeng gained more attention before and after the lawsuit between JYJ and SM Entertainment [that began in 2009],” Kim noted. “It seemed that such awareness and self-regulation among fans began to take root in the early 2010s and were increasingly promoted through the mid-2010s,” which led to the fan-led movements of condemning airport and other personal life-related content.

 
But the awareness, Kim added, was soon overtaken by K-pop’s rapid transformation through the early 2020s.

 
 
No resolution in sight?

 
The result is a combustible mix of swarming fans, reporters and aggressive security, which leads to frequent clashes that spark new controversies now and then.

 
Most recently, HYBE’s boy band Enhypen faced allegations of excessive force at an airport in Tokyo, after a video appeared to show a male manager swinging a rolled-up paper toward someone in the crowd.

 
With such incidents repeating and no clear resolution in sight, entertainment agencies have begun taking a harder line against unruly behavior at airports.

 
On Friday, SM Entertainment issued a statement on Weverse, warning that it would pursue legal action against sasaeng activities.

 
“During arrivals and departures at airports both in and outside Korea, order is being disrupted due to large crowds,” said the agency. “Excessive physical contact, attempts at conversation, delivering gifts and letters, and excessive filming can lead to safety accidents, so we ask you to refrain from such actions.”

 
The most viable path to de-escalate the persistent security concerns may lie in voluntary action from within the fandoms themselves, Kim noted.

 
“BTS fandom ARMY’s Purple Line campaign seemed truly promising, but it has faded as of late,” Kim said. “I believe it is crucial to bring the issue into public discourse, shining a light on the perspectives of all parties involved in the issue.” 
 
 

BY SHIN HA-NEE [shin.hanee@joongang.co.kr]