The International Fame of Korea's White Elephants

The International Fame of Korea's White Elephants

Agence France-Presse recently released a selection of "wild and wonderful news items" from 2007, including one about a local airport in South Korea. It said, "A town in South Korea which spent some US$140 million to build its own airport was then forced to admit that no airlines actually wanted to fly there."
The "zany airport" in the report is Uljin Airport in North Gyeongsang Province, which has not yet opened. Uljin Airport was originally scheduled to open in 2003 but operations have been delayed since no airlines want to fly there, as AFP correctly reported. The airlines know that very few passengers would want to fly there.

Uljin Airport isn't the only local airport in Korea that can't attract airlines. Daegu Airport has had no flights since November when airlines decided not to fly there. Yangyang Airport in Gangwon Province handled an average of just 66 passengers per day in July, the peak summer vacation season. That's fewer than the number of people employed to run the place -- 82. Muan International Airport in South Jeolla Province, which opened in November, averages just one domestic and one international flight per day.

Local airports in South Korea have become a global laughingstock because they were built by political rather than market logic. In addition, a new transport network including the launch of the KTX bullet train and the construction of new highways has made it possible for travelers to reach once remote destinations much more easily. All this makes many local airports a source of public scorn instead of pride.

Local airports are not the only public facilities that have squandered time and money for the sake of politics. The central government will have to pay W318.6 billion (US$1=W940) to private builders in 2008 to compensate for its wrong market predictions for the construction of the Cheonan-Nonsan Expressway, and the Incheon International Airport Highway and Railroad. We are worried that foreign news agencies might learn about these boondoggles and include them in their selection of "wild and wonderful" news items from 2008.

This column was contributed by Kim Jae-gon, from the Chosun Ilbo's National News Desk.