S.Korea's 'ghost' airport

Source: The Straits Times

SEOUL - A US$260 million (S$390 million) South Korean airport has become a 'ghost airport' with not a single passenger in the past three months, officials and a news report said on Monday.

Yangyang International Airport on the east coast handled its last flight on Nov 1, the Korea Airport Corporation said.

The state firm admitted that last year 146 airport staff served only a daily average of 26 passengers at the seven-year-old airport.

The airport, built with a government budget of 356.7 billion won (S$390 million) to promote regional tourism, has posted a deficit of more than 10 billion won each year for three consecutive years, it said.

The corporation estimated that 11 out of 14 local airports around the country posted a deficit last year.

The conservative Chosun Ilbo newspaper on Monday termed Yangyang a 'ghost airport.' It blamed 'incompetent planning and administration' by previous liberal governments and said the airports should either be shut down or privatized.

Nice fair media eh? A conservative paper blaming liberal governments... nooooo really? But it does make you wonder. How can you have an airport that had such little traffic that now it has none! a $260 million airport that nobody uses. Maybe blaming liberal corruption is correct. Someone got rich off this scam.

Also, do people still work there? With all the people unemployed these days, that would be a sweet job!