South Korea is now finding it difficult to handle its passenger traffic at its major international airport and is looking to effectively tackle the issue with the construction of yet another international airport in the country.

The government recently made public a finding outlining the current state of the country’s aviation industry. The study said that a major international airport based near Busan will reach its maximum capacity in 2023. Busan is the second-largest city of South Korea.

The report will now spur competition among several provincial and city governments for playing an active role to host the new aviation hub. The Korea Transport Institute and the Paris Airport Authority have also unveiled separate findings on the issue.

According to South Korea’s transportation ministry, the passenger traffic at Gimhae International Airport will increase at an average of 4.7 percent annually starting from 2015. Nearly 21.62 million passengers would have used the airport in 2030.

All the findings have appropriately highlighted the doubling of air traffic in the country and growing travel demand with more and more people taking flights to international destinations in recent years.

The report further revealed that there will be a tremendous growth in the number of passengers traveling out of the third-largest airport in South Korea by 2023. The airport will hit 16.68 million passengers by that time. Nearly 9.67 million passengers traveled out of the airport in 2013. The report said that with the passenger traffic increasing at a fast pace the existing facilities at the airport will make it entirely difficult to deal with passenger arrivals and departures effectively since the airport presently has only two runways thus requiring an upgrade.

Many cities in North and South Gyeongsang provinces, as well as Ulsan, Daegu and Busan, have already expressed their desire to host the new international airport. The findings have been welcomed by the provincial and city governments and the central government is being requested to hasten with the process in a transparent manner.