'Gimhae airport unfit for southeastern air hub'

Gimhae International Airport / Korea Times file

By Kim Hyun-bin

Despite the government's decision to expand Gimhae International Airport due to growing demand for air travel in the region, a regional joint inspection committee consisting of officials and experts from Busan, Ulsan and South Gyeongsang Province local governments deemed the airport unfit to serve as the gateway to the nation's southeast due to noise, safety and economic issues.

The committee held a press conference at Busan City Hall Wednesday to announce the results of its six-month study, with policymakers from the region, including Busan Mayor Oh Keo-don, Ulsan Mayor Song Cheol-ho and South Gyeongsang Province Governor Kim Kyoung-soo in attendance.

Since October, the committee comprised of 29 experts reviewed the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport's decision to expand the existing Gimhae airport and develop it into the nation's southeastern air travel hub.

The committee said the ministry's decision was not based on a proper and fair assessment of relevant factors, such as safety, noise, facilities, runway capacity and air traffic demand, concluding the Gimhae airport was not fit to accommodate the growing demand and would be saturated soon after its opening.

By 2046, passenger traffic is expected to surpass 3.76 million people, but the ministry's feasibility was based on a reduced estimation of 2.7 million, according to the committee. In addition, it pointed out that Gimhae airport is surrounded by natural barriers, and also has a high risk of bird strikes.

Noise pollution was another key factor, which the committee believes will affect more than 23,000 households residing near the airport, and it claimed the ministry made a false estimation that stated only 2,732 households would be impacted.

The committee and the policymakers of the region requested the Prime Minister's Office set up a taskforce to reassess the airport issue and establish the government's principle on aviation policies, as the issue has turned into a conflict between the ministry and the regions.

So far, the transport ministry has remained firm with the expansion plan, claiming it has not found any “grave errors” in its feasibility studies.

It said the expanded Gimhae airport would be able to accommodate 40 million passengers annually, an over six-fold increase in capacity from 5.9 million in 2016, with about half the costs needed for building a new airport.

The ministry's plan is to complete the expansion work by 2026 by constructing an additional runway and related facilities casting nearly 6 trillion won ($5.35 billion).

The airport project started with the Roh Moo-hyun administration in 2006, but conflicts continued over the candidate sites. Former President Lee Myung-bak pushed for the plan as an election promise, only to scrap it in 2011 as competition to host the airport overheated.

His successor Park Geun-hye also brought up the issue again with two preferred sites of Gadeok Island in Busan and Miryang in South Gyeongsang Province. In 2016, however, the ministry concluded both sites were economically unfeasible and decided to expand Gimhae airport instead.