Korea's government said Tuesday that it has scrapped a long-running plan to build a new gateway airport in the southeastern region, choosing instead to push for the expansion of Busan's existing Gimhae International Airport.
The announcement was made after French airport engineering company ADPi conducted a year-long feasibility study on two candidate sites for the new international airport -- Miryang, a rural town located between Busan and Daegu, and Busan's Gedeok Island -- and other options.
ADPi, an entity owned by Paris Airport Group, said in a news conference at the Sejong Government Complex that expanding Gimhae International Airport is the best option to meet the growing demand for international air travel in the country's southeastern region.
There have been growing calls for a new airport in the southeastern Gyeongsang region as Gimhae International Airport, located on the southwestern outskirts of Busan, has long been overwhelmed with inbound and outbound tourists.
Travel from Busan with a population of 3.5 million and nearby South Gyeongsang Province with 3.4 million to South Korea's main gateway, Incheon International Airport, west of Seoul, takes about four to five hours by car.
Daegu and surrounding North Gyeongsang Province had advocated Miryang, citing its easier accessibility and sufficient demand, whereas Busan's residents demanded the new airport be built on Gadeok Island within the port city.
The two candidate areas have fiercely competed to host the new airport for the past few years, which led to heated verbal clashes between politicians from the rival regions. During the previous Lee Myung-bak administration, the government had taken up the new airport project as the president's campaign pledge, but put off the decision due to the overheated regional confrontations in 2011. (Yonhap)