[Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Yoon Jamin] Although Gwangju Airport has been running a deficit for five consecutive years, it has been revealed that due to unfair internal regulations of Korea Airports Corporation, it does not even receive the airport facility usage fee reduction benefits applied to many regional airports.
On the 22nd, Assemblyman Jo O-seop (Democratic Party of Korea, Gwangju Buk-gu Gap) stated, "Despite Gwangju Airport incurring a deficit of 17.8 billion KRW over five years (2016 to September 2020), it is excluded from regular fee reductions to promote airport facility usage and from deficit domestic flight support fee reductions."
The deficit at Gwangju Airport has been increasing, with 3.2 billion KRW in 2016, 2.7 billion KRW in 2017, 3.5 billion KRW in 2018, and 5.1 billion KRW in 2019.
Korea Airports Corporation operates reduction systems for airport facility usage fees such as landing fees, parking, hangar usage fees, and lighting fees, including ▲regular fee reductions ▲incentive reductions ▲deficit domestic flight support reductions ▲parking fee reductions related to airport revitalization.
However, except for incentive reductions provided to airlines launching new routes or increasing flights, Gwangju Airport is excluded from other fee reduction targets.
Among the 12 regional airports nationwide over the past five years (2016 to September 2020), the airports excluded from regular fee reductions (excluding incentives) are Gwangju, Gimhae, Wonju, and Jeju.
Among these, as of September, the airports that did not receive regular fee reductions despite running deficits are only Gwangju Airport (-3.3 billion KRW) and Wonju Airport (-1.5 billion KRW). Jeju Airport posted a surplus of 95.8 billion KRW, and Gimhae Airport posted a surplus of 11.1 billion KRW.
Moreover, Gwangju Airport does not implement the 'parking fee reductions related to airport revitalization' operated by other regional airports such as Ulsan Airport, Daegu Airport, and Cheongju Airport.
The reason Gwangju Airport is excluded from the reduction system is that the regulations limit regular fee reductions to airports with usage performance below 30% based on the previous year, and deficit domestic flight support reductions to domestic flights with an average annual boarding rate (January to November) below 65% at airports with terminal usage rates below 30% in the previous year.
The passenger terminal usage rate (utilization rate) of Gwangju Airport rose continuously from 54.9% in 2016, 66.2% in 2017, 67.6% in 2018, and 68.9% in 2019, but decreased to 42.0% as of September this year, still exceeding the criteria for receiving reductions.
In particular, since Gwangju Airport gave up operating the Korean Air Gimpo route in March 2016, it faces inconvenience for Seoul passengers, and unless additional flights are added, it is difficult to increase utilization and return to profitability.
Assemblyman Jo said, "Korea Airports Corporation talks about its internal regulations, but in reality, only two airports are running deficits without receiving reductions," and added, "The criteria for reduction systems applied to regional airports should be changed to actual deficit standards."
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