Aircraft ground handling at Incheon International Airport, west of Seoul. (Yonhap)
SEOUL, March 21 (Korea Bizwire) — The government has announced plans to replace airport ground vehicles with eco-friendly ones.
The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport said Sunday it posted a notice to outsource a study on the introduction of eco-friendly airport ground vehicles.
At present, diesel special vehicles are used for most airport ground works, including airplane towing, passenger boarding and cargo unloading.
More than 3,000 special vehicles are operating at airports across the country, of which 754 or 24 percent of the total are older than 20 years.
The ministry plans to set up new safety, management and emissions inspection standards for airport ground vehicles after investigating their operational condition and emission of air pollutants.
The eco-friendly vehicle charging infrastructure at airports will be also expanded.
The ministry also plans to introduce an ‘equipment sharing system’ in which airport operators directly purchase high-priced eco-friendly ground equipment and lend them to ground vehicle operators.
The ministry expects this system to contribute to easing congestion at workplaces that can be caused by equipment redundancy, as well as to reducing carbon emissions on the back of the introduction of eco-friendly equipment.
J. S. Shin (js_shin@koreabizwire.com)
