YPS - Review

Yangyang International Airport: An Airport Noone Asked For

Hyeonbeom Shin

September 14th, 2024

In 2002, the 16th commercial airport of Korea opened with an anticipation to become the hub airport of eastern Korea. Replacing what were Gangwon Province’s two largest airport -  Sokcho Airport and Gangneung Airport - Yangyang International Airport was constructed to aid international and domestic travel for people residing in the eastern end of Korea but also to aid the regional disparity arising between Sokcho city and Gangneung city. The airport opened with much anticipation. Despite the decreasing demand, there were 400,000 passengers using Gangneung Airport and another 100,000 using Sokcho airport. With the addition of international flights, Yangyang was anticipated to host at least 500,000 annual passengers and more following the trend of growing globalisation. 

However, the larger reason for the construction and the opening of the Yangyang International Airport was to uphold the principle of balanced regional development. The Gangwon Province, with mountainous landscape inadequate for farming, has traditionally been the less populated region of Korea. Despite being the largest province in Korea by land area, the entire province has had not a single international airport before Yangyang due to its low population and demand. The important element is that the Yangyang International Airport was constructed, not with ambitious economic aspirations but to aid regional disparity and transportation concerns of the residents of the Gangwon Province. In fact, according to the summary report on the feasibility study for the development of new east and west coast international airports published in 1990, there is no viable candidate site, in terms of economic feasibility, to construct an international airport for the east coast. Therefore, a mere net negative profit would not necessarily indicate an ultimate failure of the airport. After all, the airport was constructed not as a profit maximising business opportunity but as a social welfare to the residents of East Coast. The fundamental failure, however, is that the Yangyang International Airport was constructed with complete ignorance to the real demands of the east coast Koreans, simply to fulfil the politicians’ wants to appear considerate and hard working. 

Today, there are 0 active domestic airlines using the Yangyang International Airport and 1 international flight to China twice a week. Since the beginning of 2024, no one was able to use Yangyang for domestic flights and only 8000 passengers boarded the international flights. Compared to the demands of Sokcho and Gangneung airports, the demand not just decreased, but plummeted to its bottom. Even Muan International Airport, another airport criticised for its emptiness, had 230,000 passengers this year. The result of the Yangyang Airport is not merely depressing but a traumatic decision in terms of urban planning and constructions of South Korea. 

Not Gangneung, Nor Sokcho

The fundamental flaw lies in the fact that Yangyang is simply not Gangneung nor Sokcho. Politicians failed, or possibly intentionally neglected, to understand that the underlying reason for the relatively sustainable demand for the two airports is that the airports are located near the city centre. To the residents of Gangneung and Sokcho, paying a little more for a domestic flight ticket significantly reduced the time taken to get to Seoul, the capital city, than to drive a car. In comparison, although it only takes an hour to fly from Sokcho or Gangneung to Seoul, it took about 4 - 5 hours, due to mountainous terrain, to get to Seoul by car. In contrast, to get to Yangyang International Airport from Sokcho or Gangneung takes another hour on the express bus, another hassle to get to the express bus station plus a minute fee. All this decreases the merit of using flight as an option for domestic travel. 

In essence, it was a construction that nobody really asked for. For both the residents of Sokcho and Gangneung, which far outnumber the residents of small Yangyang county, did not really need their local airports removed for another one that takes another hour to get to. Many were even frustrated by the fact that their airport is being relocated to a region far away from their home. Although it could be argued that the Yangyang Airport made international travel possible in the east coast, this merit is nearly negligible due to circumstances which would be elaborated through the next few paragraphs. 

Expressway and High Speed Trains 

Just before the opening of the Yangyang International Airport, Yeongdong expressway opened connecting Seoul and Gangneung in under 2 hours and 30 minutes. Followed by this, the Seoul-Yangyang expressway opened connecting Sokcho and Yangyang to Seoul in under 2 hours and 30 minutes as well. To make matters worse for the Yangyang International Airport, the Gangneung Line Korea Train Express (KTX) opened in 2017, killing all possible demand for the airport. To people of the east coast, flights were an expensive but a cost-effective alternative to a bus in the late 1900s for domestic travel. However, as Yeongdong Expressway opened its doors, the flight option from the east coast to Seoul became apparently ineffective. 

For simulation, individual A residing in Gangneung is determined to get to Seoul. He chooses to ride an express bus that travels along the Yeongdong Expressway and effectively arrives in Gangneung within 2 hours and 30 minutes. In contrast, an individual B who chooses the flight option has to take the express bus from Gangneung to Yangyang which takes up an hour, has to arrive at the airport at least 30 minutes before the flight, and has to ride the plane for an hour. Both individuals took approximately 2 hours and 30 minutes to get to Seoul but A paid far less money for the ticket than B. With the addition of the KTX line which gets you to Seoul in under 2 hours in comfortable seating, minimum motion sickness , and a cheaper ticket price than the flight option, there is simply no scenario where a flight would be a more efficient option. 

Dominance of Incheon Airport

Now we have fully understood how the Yangyang International Airport lost all feasibility of any domestic demand to rise. However, the entire purpose of the airport construction was to provide a more effective international travel experience for east coast residents. On surface level analysis, the east coast international airport should be able to raise some demand for international travel as moving from Sokcho, Gangneung and Yangyang to Incheon would take approximately 4 hours despite the improved transportation. Even if Yangyang International Airport lacked the diversity of flight options and travel destination, as long as it was able to provide somewhat sustainable, reliable, and desirable international flight options, it would be able to attract local customers who do not wish to drive 3 - 4 hours just to get to Incheon Airport. 

The fundamental failure was that Yangyang’s international flight options were nowhere near reliable, sustainable, nor desirable. What politicians neglected was that although airports could be built with government-affiliated firm from budget out of tax-payers’ money, the airline companies are profit-maximising independent firms, it's similar to building bus stations everywhere in places that are insufficient to generate revenue and expecting independent bus firms to operate bus lines for the stations. International flights are costly and operating a long-term international flight would have to be supported from large demand and sufficient background population. Quite apparently, this is not true for the Yangyang Airport. Although certain emerging LCC firms have attempted to establish international flights from Yangyang, all withdrew with the lack of demand. Today, only one chinese airline remains. 

Through the years where many firms have established international routes and withdrawn, the international routes from Yangyang have developed an infamous uncertainty from its background population. For instance, an east coast resident planning a trip abroad 4 - 5 months later would not be able to trust that the international flight from Yangyang to the destination would exist until then. Therefore, the individual would simply choose to travel to Incheon as a safer alternative. Furthermore, the flight options at Yangyang simply lack too much. As most profit-maximising firms would not consider establishing routes to Yangyang, there are minimal options for abroad destinations. Customer A, an east coast resident planning a trip to Japan, would look at the flights from Yangyang and find out that there is 0 option to fly directly to Japan from Yangyang and would simply go to Incheon which has a diverse range of time and destination for flights to Japan. 

Overall we observe that the Yangyang international Airport was structurally bound to fail. Its location and the sheer distance from large cities such as Gangneung and Sokcho, its lack of competitiveness against other means of transportation, and its lack of profitability that led to the lack of international routes were all factors that could have been forecasted much before the construction of the airport. All officials knew that Gangneung and Sokcho airports’ demand was decreasing rapidly and that Yangyang’s location wasn’t supported by the residents of Gangneung and Sokcho. They also knew that the Yeongdong Expressway, the turning point for Korea’s east to west travel on land, was soon to finish its construction. Yet, the officials’ greed to add an achievement of their career, to appear as a neutral figure from regional disputes, and to gain fame and accolades built the airport that no one really asked for or needed. The principle of balanced regional growth built the undersupported airport that generated significant net negative output and killed even the existing demands.