[Anchor]

Frequent flight delays are an indicator of lagging standards in the aviation industry. However, while flight delays have been decreasing at other airports across the country over the past three years, Gimhae International Airport has gone against the trend, showing a sharp increase.

Here is a report by Hwang Bo-ram from KNN.

[Reporter]

We compared the number of delayed flights at three airports—Gimhae, Gimpo, and Jeju—from 2023 to last year.

While Gimhae Airport, which has the lowest total number of flights, had the fewest number of delays overall, the problem lies in the trend.

Since 2023, delays at Gimpo and Jeju decreased by 22% and 19% respectively, whereas Gimhae saw a sharp surge of 21%.

In particular, international flight delays accounted for more than half of the total last year.

Its proportion of total delays is more than 10 times higher than those of Gimpo and Jeju.

The surge in delays at Gimhae Airport is directly linked to structural problems.

Gimhae Airport's hourly takeoffs and landings, or slots, are already at a saturation rate in the 90% range.

Demanding weather and terrain conditions that require circling approaches are also problematic.

In particular, because a curfew applies during the early morning hours when international takeoffs and landings are concentrated, it often leads to cascading delays.

[Kim Kwang-il / Professor, Department of Air Transportation, Silla University: Airport operations are suspended until 6 AM. There are cases where arriving flights land sequentially and experience delays... If the airport opening time is brought forward a little bit, or if arriving flights are allowed to land a little earlier, delays are expected to be reduced significantly.]

There is also a view that compensation for damages should be systematically implemented first to alleviate immediate passenger inconvenience caused by flight delays.

[Kim Jong-yang / People Power Party Member (Land, Infrastructure and Transport Committee): Despite frequent delays, I feel that compensation is far more inadequate compared to advanced countries. I plan to take a much closer look at the damage compensation system.]

Experts point out that to minimize flight delays at Gimhae Airport, institutional measures by the government and political circles are necessary, including resolving the issue of easing the curfew which is currently blocked by opposition from local residents.

(Video by Park Eon-guk / KNN)

Hwang Bo-ram, KNN