Kalma Airport is a dual-use civil and military

airport An airport is an aerodrome with extended facilities, mostly for commercial air transport. Airports usually consists of a landing area, which comprises an aerially accessible open space including at least one operationally active surface ...

Wonsan Wŏnsan (), previously known as Wŏnsanjin (), Port Lazarev, and Genzan (), is a port city and naval base located in Kangwŏn Province, North Korea, along the eastern side of the Korean Peninsula, on the Sea of Japan and the provincial capital. ...

, Kangwon-do,

North Korea North Korea, officially the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the northern half of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and shares borders with China and Russia to the north, at the Yalu River, Y ...

. A new international terminal and passenger ramp opened in September 2015.

History

Korean War

The Republic of Korea Army Capital Division captured Wonsan Airfield on 10 October 1950. On 13 October, Major General Field Harris, commander of the

1st Marine Air Wing The 1st Marine Aircraft Wing is an aviation unit of the United States Marine Corps that serves as the Aviation Combat Element of the III Marine Expeditionary Force. The wing is headquartered at Camp Foster on the island of Okinawa, Japan. Activ ...

, flew into the airfield, followed the next day by VMF-312 and other elements of Marine Aircraft Group 12. The airfield was used by the

United States Marine Corps The United States Marine Corps (USMC), also referred to as the United States Marines, is the maritime land force service branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for conducting expeditionary and amphibious operations through combi ...

and USAF under the designation K-25. By 12 October the USAF's Cargo Combat Command was flying supplies into the airfield. UN forces evacuated Wonsan in December 1950. The airfield was rendered unusable for the remainder of the war by the

Blockade of Wonsan The Blockade of Wonsan, or the siege of Wonsan, from February 16, 1951 to July 27, 1953, during the Korean War, was the longest naval blockade in modern history, lasting 861 days. UN naval forces, primarily from the United States, successfully ...

Modernisation

In July 2013,

Kim Jong-un Kim Jong-un (; , ; born 8 January 1982) is a North Korean politician who has been Supreme Leader of North Korea since 2011 and the leader of the Workers' Party of Korea (WPK) since 2012. He is a son of Kim Jong-il, who was North Korea's sec ...

approved plans for a complete redesign of the airport, turning it into an international airport for civilian use. The new airport was designed by the Chinese architectural firm PLT Planning & Architecture. The redesign will include two 36,000-square-foot oval-shaped terminals, one serving domestic flights and one serving international flights, that will each contain six gates and several

duty-free stores A duty-free shop (or store) is a retail outlet whose goods are exempt from the payment of certain local or national taxes and duties, on the requirement that the goods sold will be sold to travelers who will take them out of the country, who ...

. The runways will also be extended to 3500 metres. It is expected to cost US$200 million. On 24 September 2015, the first commercial civilian flight landed at Wonsan Airport as a part of an aviation-related tour with thirty passengers. Photographs of the inaugural flight reveal a very much redesigned terminal building, doing away with the original dual-terminal circular layout. The new terminal has a single L-shaped building. It is reported that the airport cost around $200 million to build, with most of the work being carried out by the military. In July 2015, the first major event, an aeronautics display and contest, took place at the airport. In September 2016 the Wonsan Air Festival took place for the first time, with the Korean People's Army Air Force and the North Korean airline

Air Koryo Air Koryo () is the state-owned national airline of North Korea, headquartered in Sunan-guyŏk, Pyongyang. Based at Pyongyang International Airport (IATA: FNJ), it operates international scheduled and charter services to points in Asia. Histo ...

displaying a number of their aircraft. A second edition was planned for September 2017 but it was cancelled amidst international tensions. Asiana Airlines became the first foreign airline to operate to the newly reconstructed airport at Wonsan. Air Koryo previously operated charter services from the original Wonsan Airport to South Korea prior to the end of the Sunshine policy. In July 2018 a

C-17 The McDonnell Douglas/Boeing C-17 Globemaster III is a large military transport aircraft that was developed for the United States Air Force (USAF) from the 1980s to the early 1990s by McDonnell Douglas. The C-17 carries forward the name of two ...

of the

US Air Force The United States Air Force (USAF) is the air service branch of the United States Armed Forces, and is one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Originally created on 1 August 1907, as a part of the United States Army Signal ...

204th Airlift Squadron The 204th Airlift Squadron (204 AS) is a unit of the Hawaii Air National Guard 154th Wing stationed at Joint Base Pearl Harbor–Hickam, Honolulu, Hawaii. The 204th is equipped with the C-17 Globemaster III. Overview The 204th Airlift Squadron ...

collected 55 cases of human remains from Wonsan. It is thought that these are remains of US or other UN servicemen from the Korean War. The C-17 then flew to Osan Air Base in South Korea.

Infrastructure

Wonsan Airport has two runways. A new runway was constructed parallel to the existing main runway, which is 375 metres longer. The existing runway was converted into a taxiway. A new terminal opened in 2015 to allow the airport to serve commercial passenger flights. The new construction features 2

jetbridge A jet bridge (also termed jetway, jetwalk, airgate, gangway, aerobridge/airbridge, skybridge, finger, airtube, expedited suspended passenger entry system (E-SPES), or its official industry name passenger boarding bridge (PBB)) is an enclosed, ...

s and a newly designed apron that can accommodate 12 commercial aircraft at any one time.

Airlines and destinations

References

{{authority control Airports in North Korea Korean War air bases