Nine flights were bound for Seoul’s Gimpo Airport and one for Busan’s Gimhae Airport, but both stop flight operations at 11 p.m. on Oct. 16.
So the flights had to be redirected to Incheon, the Korea JoongAng Daily newspaper reported.
The Busan-bound Air Busan flight departed Jeju more than two and a half hours late, and could not reach Gimhae before closing time.
Its 155 passengers had to make their way from Incheon, 420 kilometers by road from their destination.
For Seoul-bound passengers, the change meant finding late-night transport home from a different airport or returning to Gimpo to collect parked cars, Maeil Business Newspaper reported.
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An aircraft at Jeju International Airport, South Korea. Photo by Unsplash |
Nearly half of Jeju’s 512 scheduled flights were delayed that day.
The Transport Ministry blamed it on increased air traffic due to the National Sports Festival at Jeju, but acknowledged that preparations were inadequate.
President Lee Jae Myung visited the island for the festival’s opening ceremony. Records listed “security reasons” for the Air Busan flight’s delay but did not explain what those were or link them to the visit.
The ministry denied that preparations for the presidential aircraft’s departure caused the delays, saying commercial flights continued while the aircraft waited and traffic was restricted for only about 10 minutes.
Opposition lawmaker Kim Jong-yang called on authorities to explain the “security reasons” and why no special operating arrangements had been made for the festival.