Gimpo International Airport Gimpo International Airport Gimpo International Airport ( ), commonly known as Gimpo Airport (formerly Kimpo International Airport), is located in the far western end of Seoul, some west of the Central District of Seoul. Gimpo was the main international airport for Seoul and South Korea before being replaced by Incheon International Airport in 2001. In 2015, 23,163,778 passengers used the airport, making it the third largest airport in Korea, as it has been surpassed by Jeju International Airport. The airport is located south of the Han River in western Seoul. The name "Gimpo" comes from the nearby city of Gimpo,
Gimpo International Airport of which the airport used to be a part. On 29 November 2003, scheduled services between Gimpo and Haneda Airport in Tokyo, Japan resumed. Services to Shanghai Hongqiao International Airport resumed on 28 October 2007. Services to Kansai International Airport in Osaka, Japan started on 26 October 2008. Services to Beijing Capital International Airport started on 1 July 2011. Services to Taipei Songshan Airport started on 30 April 2012. The airfield was originally constructed in 1935–1942 during the Japanese Imperial period as an Imperial Army base. The runways were built on a bed of rocks manually hauled by Korean laborers