[2026 State Audit] Korea Airports Corporation President Kim Wonjun: "Wave of Flight Delays at Jeju Airport Not Solely Due to Presidential Aircraft"

"Equipment brought by National Sports Festival athletes takes longer to process than ordinary passengers' baggage"
Assemblywoman Kim Eunhye: "Is Korea Airports Corporation the Presidential Office's takeoff secretary's office?"

At a National Assembly Land, Infrastructure and Transport Committee audit on October 22, Korea Airports Corporation said that the wave of flight delays at Jeju International Airport on October 16 was not caused solely by operations of President Lee Jaemyung's aircraft.

Kim Wonjun, president of Korea Airports Corporation. Korea Airports Corporation.

At the audit, Assemblyman Jeon Yonggi of the Democratic Party of Korea said, "Of the 512 flights at Jeju Airport on October 16, 237 were delayed, but People Power Party committee members are blaming all of them on the presidential aircraft. According to airport corporation data, 63 of the 129 flights scheduled between noon and 4 p.m. (48.8%) were already delayed."

In response, Kim Wonjun, president of Korea Airports Corporation, said, "It is true that the delays started early."

Asked about the causes of the delays, Kim said, "It was a Friday, so weekend travelers crowded the airport, and there was also the National Sports Festival, a major national event. Even if the number of flights rose to 512, that is not an extraordinarily high number. Equipment brought by athletes, such as bicycles and archery gear, inevitably takes longer to process than ordinary passengers' baggage."

He added, "Delays continued from the morning, and the delay rate rose sharply to more than 30% from 1 p.m.," indicating that delays in aircraft connections and baggage handling had accumulated.

When Assemblyman Jeon asked, "Can we say that the presidential aircraft was not responsible for the overall delays?" Kim replied, "This is not something that can be attributed to that one factor alone."

Assemblyman Jeon criticized the opposition's claims that the presidential aircraft was responsible as a political attack, saying, "Jeju Airport's annual average delay rate is around 20%, and it was 26.3% even on October 2, when the president did not visit."

Meanwhile, 237 of the 512 flights officially scheduled to operate at Jeju Airport on October 16 (46.3%) were delayed, inconveniencing 44,600 passengers. The opposition raised suspicions that flight operations had been delayed because of the operation of President Lee's aircraft.

At the audit, People Power Party Assemblywoman Kim Eunhye said, "Thousands of people were affected by a change to one person's schedule, and Korea Airports Corporation is now hiding from the public why a flight bound for Gimpo had to go to Incheon. I requested the submission of Jeju Airport's air traffic control logs, but the corporation is refusing to provide them, citing the Official Information Disclosure Act, which has nothing to do with the National Assembly Act or the Act on Witnesses, Appraisal, etc., as well as agreements between agencies. Its written response even said it could not disclose the request for the documents. Is the airport corporation some kind of presidential office takeoff secretary's office?"

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.