"Pohang Airport Should Be Renamed" ... Gyeongbuk Province Points Out in 'Local Airport Research Project'

Ulleung Airport Scheduled to Open in 2025 "Sufficient Tourism Demand"

[Asia Economy Yeongnam Reporting Headquarters, Reporter Park Dong-wook] Gyeongsangbuk-do, conducting a "Research Service on Regional Airports and Industrial Linkage and Utilization Plans" together with the Korea Aerospace University Industry-Academic Cooperation Foundation, held a final report meeting at the provincial office on the 27th and decided to promote airport activation measures tailored to regional characteristics.

Currently, regional airports are located in Pohang, Uljin, and Yecheon within Gyeongbuk Province. Including the Daegu-Gyeongbuk Integrated New Airport, whose site will be selected soon, and Ulleung Airport scheduled to open in 2025, the number of airport facilities will increase to five.

At present, Pohang Airport is the only airport with commercial flights. Yecheon is a military airfield, and Uljin Airfield is used as a flight training facility.

According to the research results, Pohang Airport was forecasted to have a demand of 650,000 passengers by 2035 in the 5th Airport Development Mid-to-Long-Term Comprehensive Plan (2016), but demand is expected to fall significantly short due to the opening of the KTX line and other factors.

To improve the chronic problem of flight cancellations, it was suggested to upgrade navigation safety facilities and extend the runway length. From an airport marketing perspective, a plan was proposed to change the airport name to include the names of nearby cities or famous tourist destinations that can be linked with the city where the airport is located.

Ulleung Airport, the first small airport in a domestic island area, was positively concluded to generate new tourism demand as well as existing maritime-to-air transport demand upon opening. Ulleung Airport already has plans for a terminal and runway (1200×36m) capable of handling 530,000 passengers annually.

Currently, even with the runway extension, it is possible to attract short-distance foreign tourists from Far East Russia, Japan, and China, but to activate international and charter flights, improvement measures such as further runway extension, introduction of duty-free shops for domestic passengers, and support policies for airfares in island areas were proposed.

Due to climatic characteristics, Uljin Airfield has relatively few days suitable for flying, so the possibility of attracting additional training institutions beyond the existing Korea Aerospace University and Korea Aviation Professional School flight training centers appears low, according to the research results.

Regarding the possibility of reopening Yecheon Airport, since ownership of the existing passenger terminal was transferred to the Ministry of National Defense (in 2005) and remodeled as a military facility, and due to a lack of competitiveness in attracting passengers, it was suggested that an aviation training center for flight education and maintenance training related to small aircraft operations is a realistic alternative.

Kang Seong-jo, Deputy Governor of Gyeongsangbuk-do, who attended the final report meeting, urged, "Please make every effort to establish strategies that leverage the characteristics of a region with multiple airport facilities to achieve synergy effects through the linkage of industry and airports."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.