The battle between Busan and Miryang over a new airport in the southeastern Yeongnam region ended without a winner.
The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport picked neither Gadeok Island in Busan or Miryang, whose airport campaign had been backed by the two nearby industrial hubs of Ulsan and Daegu. Instead, the ministry will expand Gimhae International Airport, located in a western suburb of Busan. The ministry announced the decision Tuesday after the release of a feasibility study by French airport engineering company ADPi, a unit of Paris Airport Group.
Gadeok and Miryang were both ruled out because of safety and cost. The French company conducted the feasibility study with the consensus of the rival regions, so they should accept the outcome of ADPi’s year-long review.
The report should be an occasion to terminate the dispute over the building of a new airport for the southeastern region once and for all. Politicians should no longer use the airport proposal as a populist pledge to attract voters. The plan was first reviewed during the Roh Moo-hyun administration, but his successor Lee Myung-bak scrapped it in 2011 due to an intense regional rivalry and lack of economic viability.
The government’s decision to expand Gimhae Airport is reasonable and should be respected by the rival cities.
It is well known that most of Korea's airports, except for Incheon, Jeju, Gimpo and Gimhae, are not profitable. The Ulsan Airport, for example, recorded a 100 billion won deficit last year. If this is the harsh reality of an airport in an affluent city that serves as Korea's industrial center, a new airport in the remote, mountainous area of Miryang or on an island near Busan will surely face problems in staying viable. In fact, all of the five existing airports in the Yeongnam region are already struggling.
A second hub airport after the Incheon International Airport, which is one of the largest and busiest in Asia, is not a practical plan.
The decision is also sound because it avoids inflaming a huge regional conflict. It also relieves the government from leaving a bad precedence with highly competitive national projects in which the government is obliged to pledge extra projects to assuage the loser.
This does not mean that the government is free from blame. Cheong Wa Dae’s response to the decision fell short of responding to the anger and sense of betrayal residents feel. To appeal to voters in the region, President Park Geun-hye revived the Yeongnam airport plan during her presidential campaign even after former President Lee scrapped the plan. A presidential spokesman insisted on Wednesday that Park kept her promise, but it is uncertain how much the residents in the candidate cities agree with this view.
As she brought back the airport proposal for political purposes, President Park has the responsibility to offer consolation to the residents and assure them that the expansion of the Gimhae airport will have the full support of the central government.
The ministry said that it will add runways and a passenger terminal to the Gimhae Airport for a reopening in 2026. The Park administration should extend full administrative and budgetary assistance for the Gimhae project. Above all, it should work hand in hand with the local government and experts to properly define problems with the expansion plan and then clear any hurdles.
Ultimately, the new Gimhae airport should be renewed as a facility to boost business and tourism in the Yeongnam region, and contribute to promoting Korea’s competitiveness.