Kai Tak Airport was an international airport of Hong Kong from 1925 until 1998. Officially known as Hong Kong International Airport from 1954 to 6 July 1998, it is often referred to as Hong Kong International Airport, Kai Tak, and Kai Tak International Airport, to distinguish it from its successor, Chek Lap Kok International Airport, built on reclaimed and levelled land around the islands of Chek Lap Kok and Lam Chau, to the west.
Because of the geography of the area, with water on three sides of the runway, Kowloon City's residential apartment complexes to the north-west and mountains more than high to the north-east of the airport, aircraft could not fly over the mountains and quickly drop in for a final approach. Instead, aircraft had to fly above Victoria Harbour and Kowloon City, passing north of Mong Kok's Bishop Hill. After passing Bishop Hill, pilots would see Checkerboard Hill with a large orange-and-white checkerboard pattern. Once the pattern was sighted and identified, the aircraft made a low-altitude (sub-600 ft; ) 47-degree right-hand turn, ending with a short final approach and touchdown. For pilots, this airport was technically demanding, as the approach could not be flown by aircraft instruments, but had to be flown visually because of the right-hand turn required.
The airport was home to Hong Kong's international carrier Cathay Pacific, as well as regional carrier Dragonair (since 2016 known as Cathay Dragon), freight airline Air Hong Kong and Hong Kong Airways. The airport was also home to the former RAF Kai Tak and the Hong Kong Aviation Club.
Geographic environment
Kai Tak was located on the eastern side of Kowloon Bay in Kowloon, Hong Kong. The area is surrounded by rugged mountains. Less than to the north and northeast of the former runway 13 threshold is a range of hills reaching an elevation of . To the east of the former 31 threshold, the hills are less than away. Immediately to the south of the airport is Victoria Harbour, and farther south is Hong Kong Island with hills up to .
When Kai Tak closed, there was only one runway in use, numbered 13/31 and oriented southeast–northwest (134/314 degrees true, 136/316 degrees magnetic). The runway was made by reclaiming land from the harbour and was extended several times after its initial construction. The runway was when it was opened in 1958 and long when the airport closed in 1998. During the period between 1945 and 1955 the airport used a different 13/31 alongside a crossing 07/25. These two runways were and .
At the northern end of the runway at closure, buildings rose to six stories just across a major multi-lane arterial road. The other three sides of the runway were surrounded by Victoria Harbour. The low-altitude turning manoeuvre before the shortened final approach was so close to these buildings that passengers could spot television sets in the apartments: "...as the plane banked sharply to the right for landing ... the people watching television in the nearby apartments seemed an unsettling arm's length away."
History 1925 to 1930s The story of Kai Tak started in 1912 when two businessmen, Ho Kai and Au Tak, formed the Kai Tak Investment Company to reclaim land in Kowloon for development.Kai Tak Airport History , Hong Kong ATC history, Munsang College history The land was acquired by the government for use as an airfield after the business plan failed.
In 1924, Harry Abbott opened the Abbott School of Aviation on that piece of land. Soon, it became a small grass strip runway airport used by the RAF, and by several flying clubs which, over time grew to include the Hong Kong Flying Club, the Far East Flying Training School, and the Aero Club of Hong Kong; these exist today as an amalgamation known as the Hong Kong Aviation Club. In 1928, a concrete slipway was built for seaplanes that used the adjoining Kowloon Bay. The first control tower and hangar at Kai Tak were built in 1935. In 1936, the first domestic airline in Hong Kong was established.
World War II
Hong Kong fell into the hands of the Japanese on 12 December 1941, during World War II. In 1942, the Japanese army expanded Kai Tak, using many Allied prisoner-of-war (POW) labourers,Work on Kai Tak Airport 11 September 1942 Newspaper Clipping building two concrete runways, 13/31 and 07/25. Numerous POW diary entries exist recalling the gruelling work and long hours working on building Kai Tak.Harry Atkinson ,Thomas Smith Forsyth ,Bernard Castonguay ,Garfield Loew ,John McGee Former POWs also recount their attempts to sabotage construction, which included mixing large amounts of clay with the concrete for the runways. During the process, the historic wall of the Kowloon Walled City and the tall Sung Wong Toi, a memorial for the last Song dynasty emperor, were destroyed for materials. A 2001 Environmental Study recommended that a new memorial be erected for the Sung Wong Toi rock and other remnants of the Kowloon area before Kai Tak.
1945 to 1970s
It was also the location of , a Royal Navy Mobile Operational Naval Air Base, (MONAB) VIII, which was situated here between 1945 and 1947.Royal Navy Archive At the start of April 1947, it was decommissioned, and concurrently re-commissioned as HMS Flycatcher. At the end of December, HMS Flycatcher was officially decommissioned at Kai Tak, although the Royal Navy retained lodger rights until 1978.
A plan to turn Kai Tak into a modern airport was released in 1954. The lack of space meant that the only way to add length to the existing runway was to extend it into Victoria Harbour. Dragages Hong Kong, a construction company with prior marine and dredging experience, was contracted to pursue the project. Construction began in 1955. By 1957 runway 13/31 had been extended to , while runway 7/25 remained long; night operations were not allowed.The Aeroplane 2 August 1957 Bristol Britannia 102s took over BOAC's London-Tokyo flights in the summer of 1957 and were the largest airliners scheduled to the old airport (Boeing Stratocruisers never flew there). In 1958 the new NW/SE runway extending into Kowloon Bay was completed by land reclamation. The two old runways were removed with footprints used by the apron and terminal building. The passenger terminal was completed in 1962. The runway was extended in the mid-1970s to , the final length. This extension was completed in June 1974, but the full length of the runway was not in use until 31 December 1975, as construction of the new Airport Tunnel had kept the northwestern end of the runway closed.
In 1955, Kai Tak Airport was featured in the film The Night My Number Came Up.
An Instrument Guidance System (IGS) was installed in 1974 to aid landing on runway 13. Use of the airport under adverse conditions was greatly increased.
In the 1970s, the airport's increasing traffic and growth of high-density developments around it raised concerns about the potential loss of life should a crash occur, though no serious accidents happened throughout its history of operations.
Overcrowding in the 1980s and 1990s The growth of Hong Kong also put a strain on the airport's capacity. Its usage was close to, and for some time exceeded, the designed capacity. The airport was designed to handle 24 million passengers per year, but in 1996, Kai Tak handled 29.5 million passengers, plus 1.56 million tonnes of freight, making it the third busiest airport in the world in terms of international passenger traffic, and busiest in terms of international cargo throughput. Moreover, clearance requirements for aircraft takeoffs and landings made it necessary to limit the height of buildings that could be built in Kowloon. While Kai Tak was initially located far away from residential areas, the expansion of both residential areas and the airport resulted in Kai Tak being close to residential areas. This caused serious noise and engine pollution for nearby residents and necessitated height restrictions, which were removed after Kai Tak closed. A night curfew from 11:30 pm to 6:30 am in the early morning also hindered operations.
As a result, in the late 1980s, the Hong Kong Government began searching for alternative locations for a new airport in Hong Kong to replace the aging airport. After deliberating on several locations, including the south side of Hong Kong Island, the government decided to build the airport on the island of Chek Lap Kok off Lantau Island. The new airport is located far away from Hong Kong's main residential areas, conducive to minimising the dangers of a major crash and also reducing the nuisance of noise pollution. A huge number of resources were mobilised to build this new airport, part of the ten programmes in Hong Kong's Airport Core Programme.
The Regal Meridien Hong Kong Airport Hotel (now the Regal Oriental Hotel), linked to the passenger terminal by a footbridge spanning Prince Edward Road, opened on 19 July 1982. This was Hong Kong's first airport hotel and comprised 380 rooms including 47 suites. The hotel still exists, but the footbridge (which was connected to the passenger terminal) has been demolished. It is one of the few remaining buildings related to Kai Tak Airport.
Closure and legacy The new airport in Chek Lap Kok officially opened on 6 July 1998 to replace the functions of Kai Tak Airport. All of the essential airport supplies and vehicles that were left in the old airport for operation (some of the non-essential ones had already been transported to the new airport) were transported to Chek Lap Kok in one early morning with a single massive move, with a police escort.
On the same day, at 03:30 HKT, when the first aircraft departed for Chek Lap Kok, Kai Tak was finally retired as an airport, with its ICAO and IATA airport codes reassigned to the new airport at Chek Lap Kok. Below were the final flights of Kai Tak:
The last arrival: Dragonair KA841 from Chongqing (Airbus A320-200) landed on Runway 13 at 23:38 (11:38 p.m.) The last scheduled commercial flight: Cathay Pacific CX251 to London–Heathrow (Boeing 747-400) took off from Runway 13 at 00:02 (12:02 a.m.) The last departure: Cathay Pacific CX3340 ferry flight to the new airport at Chek Lap Kok (Airbus A340-300) took off from Runway 13 at 01:05 (1:05 a.m.)
With the ferry flight's takeoff to Chek Lap Kok, a ceremony celebrating the end of the airport was held inside the control tower, with then-director of civil aviation Richard Siegel, giving a brief speech; he ended with the words "Goodbye Kai Tak, and thank you", before dimming the lights briefly and then turning them off.
Chek Lap Kok opened at 06:00 (6:00 a.m.) on 6 July 1998 with the arrival of Cathay Pacific Flight 889 (nicknamed Polar 1) from New York–JFK. The first week of operations was disrupted by a sequence of IT failures based around software bugs in the Flight Information Display System. This in turn disrupted baggage handling and airbridge allocation. But by the end of the first week these challenges, and other teething problems, were largely resolved, and the new airport was exceeding Kai Tak performance measures. The exception was the new airport's main air cargo terminal built and operated by HACTL as a franchisee. The terminal faced major difficulties in coming into operation on 6 July, such that it closed again on 7 July to enable the franchisee to implement a major recovery programme. The disruption this caused to air cargo operations at the new airport led the government to temporarily reactivate Kai Tak's cargo terminal for a month. During this period, the airport was given temporary ICAO code VHHX.