New airport plan crashes again

Busan Mayor Suh Byung-soo leaves after a press conference at Busan City Hall, Tuesday, to express regret over the government’s decision to scrap its plan to build a new airport in the country’s southeast, and instead expand Gimhae International Airport. Gadeok Island near Busan had been one of the sites studied for the new airport. / Yonhap

Government opts to expand Gimhae airport

By Kim Bo-eun

The government has scrapped its much-awaited plan to build a new airport in the country’s southeastern region, Tuesday, dodging regional tensions over the selection of a new location.

Neither of the two finalists ― Gadeok Island in the southern port city of Busan and the inland town of Miryang, South Gyeongsang Province ― was selected.

Instead, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport (MOLIT) announced it would expand the existing Gimhae International Airport to deal with the increasing number of passengers flying there.

The result was based on a year-long feasibility study by the French company Aeroports de Paris Ingenierie (ADPi), a unit of ADP (Paris Airport Group). “ADPi concluded that expanding Gimhae airport would be the best alternative, and the government supports the results, as it has comprehensively considered the factors necessary in deciding the location of an airport such as air safety, commercial viability, accessibility and the environment,” Land Minister Kang Ho-in said in press conference at the Sejong Government Complex.

“New runways and terminals will be built at Gimhae and transportation to the airport will be improved, in order to meet the demand of passengers in the region.”

MOLIT will launch studies on expanding the airport within the year and finalize the plans next year.

Kang Joo-yeol, head of an association backing Miryang as the new airport location, sheds tears as he leaves the Daegu Chamber of Commerce and Industry after the government announcement. / Yonhap

The expansion will involve building a new runway to increase the total number of runways to three, and a new terminal and control tower, as well as new roads and railways to the airport. There will be no safety problems and little issues with noise, the ministry said.

The expanded airport will be able to accommodate 40 million passengers annually compared to the current 5.9 million. The ministry expects the expansion to take a decade, being completed in 2026, with estimated cost of 4.1 trillion won, about half of the costs for Miryang or Gadeok Island.

ADPi, which outlined its decision at the press conference, said the two proposed sites were evaluated on 30 standards including domestic and international airport construction cases and nine criteria presented by the International Civil Aviation Organization.

These included the ease of operating flights, surrounding conditions, atmospheric conditions, transportation to the airport, construction costs and environmental effect.

Residents, local officials and politicians of the two regions expressed disappointment, saying they didn't understand the decision.

The Gadeok location was supported by Busan, and Miryang by Daegu, and Ulsan and North and South Gyeongsang provinces. Regional rivalries had intensified ahead of the government announcement, raising concerns that there would be a huge backlash from the losing region when the results were revealed.

“It is a stopgap measure to prevent the expected backlash,” Busan Mayor Suh Byung-soo said. “It ignored 3.6 million Busan citizens.”

Minjoo Party of Korea lawmakers based in Busan vowed to create a committee “to investigate the truth behind the unfair study.”

Daegu Mayor Kwon Young-jin denounced the announcement as an “absurd decision which takes Korea 10 years back in history.”

“We will thoroughly review the feasibility study and work with vested local governments to come up with an alternative,” Kwon said.

Miryang Mayor Park Il-ho said, “Miryang citizens are angered at the decision which ridiculed them. If the government was to expand Gimhae airport, it should have made the decision in the beginning. Who will trust the government now?”

The plan to build an airport in the country's southeast was proposed in 2005 under the Roh Moo-hyun administration. The succeeding Lee Myung-bak administration launched a study but scrapped any plans in March 2011, in light of poor commercial viability and the environmental damage expected from the project.

However, the plan was revived in December 2012 ahead of the presidential election, with hopefuls including a new airport in their pledges in an attempt to win votes.

Gimhae International Airport has reached capacity, according to MOLIT. Data show the number of passengers at the airport rose 22.3 percent to 5.9 million in 2015 from a year earlier. The yearly capacity of the airport is set at 5.4 million. The rise in passengers is attributed to an increase in flights by budget carriers.