Verification Committee "Fundamental Review Needed for Gimhae New Airport"... Effectively Nullified (Update)

[Asia Economy Reporter Kwangho Lee] The Verification Committee for Gimhae New Airport under the Prime Minister's Office announced on the 17th that "fundamental reconsideration is necessary for the promotion of Gimhae New Airport." This means the 'cancellation' of the Gimhae New Airport plan.

At a press conference on the verification results of the 'Gimhae New Airport Basic Plan' held at the Government Seoul Office in the afternoon, the committee stated, "The basic plan for Gimhae New Airport requires significant supplementation in areas such as safety, facility operation and demand, environment, and noise, and it is difficult to respond to future changes such as expansion."

They added, "Issues that were not sufficiently reviewed at the time of project expansion, such as the need to supplement flight procedures, the necessity of early installation of the western taxiway, limitations on expansion to prepare for future demand changes, and the expansion of noise range, have been confirmed," and "due to the characteristics of an international airport, the basic plan has the limitation of being very tight in terms of capacity to respond to future changes."

The Verification Committee was officially launched on December 6 of the same year after Busan, Ulsan, and Gyeongnam local governments and the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport requested verification of the appropriateness of Gimhae New Airport as the 'Southeast Gateway Airport' to the Prime Minister's Office in June last year and agreed to abide by the results.

Accordingly, the committee classified the issues raised by Busan, Ulsan, and Gyeongnam into four areas: safety, noise, facility operation and demand, and environment, and conducted verification work on 11 issues and 22 detailed items.

In this process, they made every effort for objective and scientific verification, including on-site investigations, listening to expert opinions, and requesting authoritative interpretations from related organizations such as the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) and the Ministry of Government Legislation for some issues.

The committee requested, "While some may feel disappointed with the verification results, we hope that the government, Busan, Ulsan, Gyeongnam, and the public will respect the results reached after intense discussions and reviews since December last year as much as possible."

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