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No more tax-consuming airports

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By Kim Rahn

There are a plenty of government projects on which I think the tax I pay is being wasted.

One such project that is looming, which this taxpayer desperately wants to stop is: building an airport.

In Korea, many airports are called "political airports" because they were made not based on proper study about demand, but for some politicians' needs to get more votes from residents of the regions.

Besides the nation's main gateway of Incheon International Airport, Korea has 14 regional airports. As of 2017, only four of them operated in the black ― Gimpo in Seoul, Gimhae in Busan, Jeju and Daegu.

The others are not making a profit, mostly because the numbers of users are far lower than initial forecasts by the government ― and the politicians who pushed for them.

In case of Uljin Airport in Uljin County in North Gyeongsang Province, construction began in 1999 but was suspended in 2005 after a Board of Audit and Inspection review found there was zero demand from airlines for the local airport. In 2007, as one of the "zany stories of the year," AFP reported: "A town in South Korea, which spent some $140 million to build its own airport, was then forced to admit that no airlines actually wanted to fly there."

The airport was transformed into Uljin Flight Training Center which opened in 2010.

Yangyang International Airport in Gangwon Province also gained international spotlight: In 2009, the BBC called it "ghost airport" and reported: "If there was an award for the world's quietest international airports, Yangyang in South Korea would be a strong contender. One of its newest terminals, which cost almost $400 million to build, has not seen a single passenger in more than six months."

Yangyang airport has not closed though, but the number of users is pitiful; the government forecast 2 million annual passengers in the feasibility study before construction, but only about 37,000 people used it last year.

There are more similar cases.

Yecheon Airport in North Gyeongsang Province, originally a military airport, was used as a commercial airport from 1989 but again became a military-only one in 2004 following airlines' repeated suspension and resumption of operations due to a lack of demand A new passenger terminal was used for less than two years.

Muan International Airport in Muan County, South Jeolla Province, which opened in 2007, has also been suffering a chronic low demand. The feasibility study in 1999 expected 9.9 million annual users, but some 430,000 used it last year.

Most of these airports were the result of promises made under the name of "regional development" by powerful politicians or former presidents who sought the large-scale transportation infrastructure to woo voters of the regions ahead of presidential or general elections. They kept their promises anyway, at the cost of taxpayers' money, and took no responsibility for the poor consequences and heavy losses.

Despite the lessons, there grows a possibility that the history may be repeated.

In January, the government said a project to build another airport in Saemangeum, reclaimed land in North Jeolla Province, would be exempt from a feasibility study as a part of its plan for "balanced" regional development.

Saemangeum is a one-hour drive from the notorious Muan Airport, and two hours from another deficit-ridden project, Cheongju International Airport. This means the already struggling airports need to compete with each other, probably toward co-destruction.

President Moon Jae-in also recently mentioned about the need for a new airport in the southeastern part of the country, although the former Park Geun-hye administration scrapped the plan after a study showed the two candidate sites were economically unfeasible. Instead the study suggested expanding the current Gimhae airport for the growing demand for air travel.

Airport construction must be based on a thorough and objective study on air travel demand and the economic situation of the region. It is just not right to spend hundreds of billions of won in taxpayers' money for a couple of people's political needs.

There are many other sectors that lack enough budget, such as support for single parents, establishing proper safety equipment at state-run power plants, and so on. Spend the money on them.





Kim Rahn rahnita@koreatimes.co.kr


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