Mayor Byungsoo Kim: "Gimpo Will Strive to Become the Aviation Mobility Hub of Northwestern Seoul Metropolitan Area"

Gimpo City Solidifies Its Status as a UAM Industry Platform
Equipped with Both Locational and Institutional Competitiveness
City and KTL Host "UAM Industry Development Strategy Forum, Season 2"

Gimpo City, which has established a vision for a public institution-corporate partnership model in the urban air mobility (hereafter UAM) industry, solidified its position as a key player in the creation of the UAM ecosystem by concretizing the implementation strategy for its cooperation model at an industrial development forum held on November 18 with leading figures in the UAM ecosystem.

Gimpo City held the "2025 UAM Industry Development Strategy Forum, Season 2" jointly with the Korea Testing Laboratory (KTL) on the 18th. Provided by Gimpo City

Gimpo City announced that it jointly hosted the "2025 UAM Industry Development Strategy Forum, Season 2" with the Korea Testing Laboratory (KTL). Held under the theme "Co-Creating the Future of Gimpo UAM" at the COEX Magok Convention Center, the forum brought together about 90 participants, including business leaders active in the UAM industry, promising startups, members of government-led UAM councils, UAM researchers, and networking companies from the Gimpo area. This forum gathered professionals from all fields involved in building the ecosystem, and discussions mainly focused on the current status and future vision of the UAM industry, as well as Gimpo City's direction for fostering and developing the UAM sector.

In the first session, Jae-woo Kim, Senior Advisor at Korean Air, delivered a keynote speech titled "Introduction of Next-Generation Advanced Air Mobility (AAM) and Prospects for Future Air Transportation," presenting global AAM technology trends and commercialization outlooks. According to the presentation, the UAM market is projected to reach a size of 1.5 trillion dollars by around 2040.

Kim predicted, "It will grow larger than the air transportation market and faster than the electric vehicle market," and added, "Gimpo, with its vast land and proximity to Gimpo Airport, is an ideal city for the MRO (Maintenance, Repair, and Overhaul) industry." He continued, "Gimpo City's inclusion in the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport's 'Metropolitan Skyway Project' is the result of practical efforts such as airspace and route analysis," and forecasted, "Since inter-city connections are more important than intra-city links, Gimpo will be competitive if it systematizes metropolitan routes such as Gimpo to Seoul and Gimpo to the West Coast."

The second session's presentations and panel discussion were chaired by Woochun Moon, Director of the Advanced Aerospace Technology Research Institute at the Aerospace Industry-Academia Convergence Center (G3AM Chair). Wonseok Kang, Director of Planning and Coordination at the Korea Aerospace Industries Association, presented on "The Present and Future of the Aerospace Industry and Its Development Strategy," while Daekyu Lee, Professor at Jeonbuk National University, spoke on "Aviation AI and Next-Generation Advanced Air Mobility (AAM)."

The expert panel included Jaewon Jang, Principal Researcher at the Korea Aerospace Research Institute; Junhyun Song, Manager at Hyundai Elevator; Geumsik Yoo, Deputy General Manager at Korea Airports Corporation; and Jongwon Kwon, Director of the Industrial Artificial Intelligence Innovation Center at KTL. They discussed the roles and strategies needed for fostering the UAM industry in each field, as well as ways to apply these strategies in Gimpo City.

In particular, the experts highly praised Gimpo City's significant contribution to increasing the social acceptance of the new urban air mobility (UAM) industry during the forum.

Geumsik Yoo, Deputy General Manager at Korea Airports Corporation, stated, "Gimpo City's pioneering efforts will become a major asset as Gimpo emerges as a representative UAM hub city in the metropolitan area. New industries are instinctively met with resistance, but transforming this resistance into empathy and increasing acceptance is a challenge that local governments leading these innovations must shoulder. Gimpo's proactive activities in this regard are greatly helping to improve social acceptance among residents of the metropolitan area."

Jongwon Kwon, Director of the Industrial Artificial Intelligence Innovation Center at KTL, commented, "Gimpo City possesses many locational advantages for the urban air mobility (UAM) industry. It is a city capable of serving as a platform," and added, "Gimpo City is clearly presenting the direction for industrial transformation at the institutional level. The 'Ordinance on the Establishment of Urban Air Mobility Systems and Industrial Development in Gimpo City,' enacted in 2022, has become the starting point for building an industrial ecosystem involving industry, academia, research, and government. The 'Basic Ordinance on Artificial Intelligence,' currently being promoted this year, aims to expand AI technology throughout administration, transportation, and industrial policy, embodying the vision of 'AI-Converged Smart City Gimpo.' Gimpo City has thus completed the policy and institutional foundation to become an intelligent aviation city."

Meanwhile, Gimpo City, with its excellent accessibility to Seoul, Incheon International Airport, and Gimpo Airport, is also recognized as a city that ensures air route safety, being bordered by the West Sea, the Han River, and the Ara Waterway. Infrastructure projects such as the Gimpo Hangang 2 Compact City, which is being developed as a future mobility-specialized city, and the Gimpo Environmental Regeneration Innovation Complex, which aims to attract eco-friendly mobility parts manufacturing and advanced industries, are expected to make Gimpo an optimal city for UAM in the future.

Mayor Byungsoo Kim continuing discussions with participants after the forum. Photo by Gimpo City

In particular, since the launch of the 8th popularly elected administration in 2022, the city has established its own roadmap, enacted relevant ordinances, and completed airspace and route analyses, thus embarking in earnest on ecosystem development. To establish a local implementation system, Gimpo City has signed business agreements with the Korea Airports Corporation, the Korea Testing Laboratory, and the Korea Aerospace Industries Association. Since last year, the city has also been hosting the Urban Air Mobility Industry Development Strategy Forum, providing a platform for public discussion.

Mayor Byungsoo Kim stated, "We will take an active role in ensuring that the UAM ecosystem, a new form of mobility and a future growth engine, is well established," adding, "We will do our utmost to strengthen cooperation with relevant institutions and companies, and to build an institutional foundation so that Gimpo can become a hub for air mobility in the northwestern part of the metropolitan area."

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