Could a Logistics-centric Airport Serve as New Growth Engine in Provincial Areas?: The Case Study of Korea’s Southeastern Area

Abstract

Several provincial governments are trying to construct additional airports, which their local area already has an airport. These local areas experts demonstrate that the newly built airport will resolve the industrial imbalance between provincial and metropolitan areas. And they believe that the newly built airport will have a synergistic effect with nearby seaports. Is there any synergy between seaports and airports? Can an airport serve as a new growth engine in provincial areas? The purpose of the study is to answer the above research questions. As results, it is not always the case that seaports and a proximate airport have a synergistic effect as in the Hong Kong case. In addition, an airport cannot reorganize its hinterland. The cases of TSMC and Samsung show evidence supporting this argument. Air cargo production locations are mainly determined according to the available human resources and not according to their distances from an airport.