South Korea will build a second airport on the southern resort island of Jeju.
 
The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport announced Tuesday that an airport with one runway will open in Seongsan township in Seogwipo city before 2025 in order to expand Jeju's airport infrastructure.
 
The ministry explained that the existing airport will continue to operate after the new airport is built.
 
The ministry said the decision was reached after considering the environmental impact and the relatively small construction cost of four-point-one trillion won, or roughly three-point-five billion U.S. dollars. The ministry said it had also determined that operating two airports would present no problems.
 
Booking plane tickets to Jeju has been a challenge on weekends and during the high travel season due to a spike in Chinese tourists and increased operation of low-budget airlines.
 
The transport ministry said that studies on air demand forecast the existing Jeju International Airport will be completely saturated by 2018.