Ulleung Island Airport on the Cards Again

The government has revived a plan shelved as unprofitable last year to build an airport on Ulleung Island, the nearest inhabited island to Dokdo.

The Ministry of Land, Transport and Maritime Affairs on Wednesday said an airport could block wave penetration to nearby areas and thus save it having to build a breakwater planned at the island’s Sadong Port, for which it has budgeted W170 billion (US$1=W1,051).

Instead, it decided to build an airport for smaller planes with up to 50 seats by 2017.

The ministry believes the airport would be economically viable if it cuts the total construction cost from W640 billion to about W400 billion by shortening the planned runway from 1,200 m to 1,100 m and reducing the width from 150 m to 80 m.

"There are various reasons why an airport on Ulleung Island would be significant, including the care to a remote region it would show and that it could galvanize the leisure industry there," a ministry spokesman said. "As it takes just an hour to fly from Gimpo Airport in Seoul to Ulleung, it'll make visiting Dokdo much more convenient as well."