A Review on the legal aspects of Airport Operation and Privatization in korea

한국의 공항운영 현황과 민영화에 대한 법적 고찰

In this paper, the types of airport operation are categorized four groups in context of ownership and operational management; full government ownership and operation; government ownership with privatization of selected service; government ownership and private management; private ownership and operation. The term,"Privatization" has a different definition when it is used in different contexts and cultures. In this paper, the definition of"Privatization" in the context of airport, is that the movement of an entity from the government sector to the private sector. To keep pace with the remarkable growth in the air traffic volume of passengers and cargo, more and more mega-international airports have been built or are under construction. As the air transport demand is expected to increase at an even greater rate in the 21st century, the need for new conception airport is merging to solve the current problems such as airport congestions and flight delays which will be essential factors to decide whether the competitive airports or not. Presently, we researched the type of the operational management to strengthen the competitiveness for Korea's airports. Specifically, It is focused on the government ownership with privatization of selected services. It seems to be evaluated as government ownership and private management when it is actively utilized within Korea Airport Authority's law or Inchon International Airport's public corporation law. To make more competitive airport in 21st Century, however, it is desirable to seek for the method to gradually evaluate to private ownership and operation.