Jinju City Sees Aerospace Investment Gains... Hana Aerodynamics Begins Full-Scale Move-In

Customized Support and Industrial Linkage Infrastructure Drive Investment
Specialized Aircraft Parts Company Launches Investment... Medium- to Long-Term Expansion Plans Taking Shape

Jinju City in South Gyeongsang Province is seeing tangible results as its efforts to attract companies in the aerospace sector, which it is promoting as a key future growth engine industry, are now leading to actual investments.

The city has focused its administrative capabilities on attracting companies and building an industrial ecosystem by promoting the clustering of the aerospace industry around the “Gyeongnam Aerospace National Industrial Complex (Jinju District).” In particular, it explains that going beyond simply supplying industrial land, its efforts to build infrastructure capable of providing customized support for each company and enabling business linkages among tenant companies have translated into concrete investment outcomes.

On this foundation, Hana Aerodynamics, a specialist in aircraft parts, is drawing attention as it embarks on full-scale investment in the Gyeongnam Aerospace National Industrial Complex.

Photo of Son Changhwan, CEO of Hana Aerodynamics, an aerospace company in Jinju.

Hana Aerodynamics formalized its move into the industrial complex by signing an investment memorandum of understanding (MOU) with South Gyeongsang Province and Jinju City in October 2025, and entered the execution phase of its investment by signing a land sales contract on January 8. Furthermore, by pursuing an additional land acquisition contract on January 20, the company is also fleshing out its medium- to long-term business expansion plans.

The city expects this to serve as a momentum for accelerating additional corporate attraction and the further expansion of industrial clustering.

Hana Aerodynamics is the only Tier-1 partner in Korea that supplies key components to Bell Textron, a global helicopter manufacturer, and its technological capabilities have been recognized in the global market based on its accumulated experience in manufacturing aircraft parts.

Recently, the company has also been registered as a Tier-1 partner of Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) and Subaru, a Japanese company in the automotive and aerospace sectors, thereby further strengthening its position in the global aerospace industry. Accordingly, by establishing its production and investment base in Jinju, it is expected to contribute to enhancing the competitiveness of local industries and creating quality jobs.

Building on this case, the city plans to further reinforce a virtuous cycle that leads from corporate attraction to actual investment, and to foster aerospace and future air mobility (AAV) as the region’s core future industries, with the Gyeongnam Aerospace National Industrial Complex at the center.

Meanwhile, the Korea Aerospace Industries (KAI) Rotary Wing Flight Center is in operation in Jinju, enabling testing and research and development in the field of rotary-wing aircraft such as helicopters, and a Future Aircraft Fuselage (AAV) Demonstration Center is also currently being established. As a result, a foundation has been laid to connect everything from technology verification and demonstration to commercialization of the future air mobility industry within a single region, thereby supporting a stable investment and growth environment for companies moving into Jinju.

In addition, with construction of the Southern Inland Railway project passing through Jinju having broken ground on February 6, accessibility to the Seoul metropolitan area is expected to improve dramatically. The city plans to actively and strategically induce corporate relocations and new investments through a “functionally distributed model,” under which core research and development functions are kept in the metropolitan area while large-scale production and testing/evaluation functions are located in Jinju. In particular, rapid transportation via Korea Train Express (KTX) is expected to strengthen linkages between headquarters and production bases, thereby improving logistics efficiency and industrial competitiveness.

A city official said, “Jinju City has been steadily building the infrastructure and conditions needed to lead the aerospace industry,” adding, “We will concentrate our administrative capacity so that companies can settle and grow stably, and in doing so, translate this into revitalizing local industries and creating quality jobs.”