Although Hong Kong’s legendary Kai Tak International Airport closed way back in 1998, it’ll never be forgotten among aviation enthusiasts. It was a one-of-a-kind experience for both pilots and passengers, pushing their skills to the limit and our nerves to the breaking point. Located in the middle of Hong Kong, landing at Kai Tak was not only a frightening yet thrilling event for passengers but also a very demanding and difficult task for pilots. It required a good bit of training in order to maneuver around the many skyscrapers and the nearly 2,300 foot-high mountains that surround the City of Hong Kong.
Let’s take a look back at a “typical” Kai Tai landing. After cruising at 30,000-plus feet, the Boeing 747 dips below 6,000 feet, with a rocky, tropical archipelago spread out beneath. The jumbo jet’s fuel supply is dwindling after a dozen hours in the air. Continuing to descend, the plane is now surrounded by green peaks on three sides. It’s headed straight for the mountains at nearly 300 miles per hour! The pilot needs to slow the aircraft down quickly to avoid the mountains, but to stay in the air, it needs to maintain its speed. The problem seemed insoluble: now less than 1,000 feet off the ground with a mountainside quickly filling the windshield. At what seems like the last possible instant, the pilot banks sharply to the right and heads down, slinging the 300+ passengers through a 47-degree turn at some 200 miles per hour, the mountains whipping past the windows. This maneuver prevents the plane from slamming into the peak, but now, apartment buildings seem close enough to touch. Passengers report being able to see what people in the apartments were watching on TV! The plane emerges from its turn and levels off at just 150 feet above the crowded city streets, still descending. Moments later, streets turn to runway. A puff of smoke from the tires and the plane’s on the ground. Welcome to Hong Kong.
The landing just described, while remarkable, was typical. So for all the pilot’s heroics, there was no medal or citation forthcoming as it was just another landing at Kai Tak Airport. Most of Hong Kong’s air traffic made this landing on Runway 13, using what was often called the “checkerboard approach,” because the mountainside that pilots aimed for in order to line up with the runway had an enormous red and white checkerboard pattern painted on it. After the closure of the airport, the checkerboard was no longer needed and it was left to decay. The years of weather took its toll until it was a shadow of its former self. Happily, the powers that be decided to restore this Hong Kong landmark, which was good news for us aviation buffs and for the citizens of Hong Kong. There’s now a campaign afoot to even have it declared an historic landmark. The checkerboard is a painted pattern of colored blocks on the side of a hill at Lok Fu Park. When the airport was open, it was used as a navigational aid for getting pilots to the correct position above Waterloo Road, at which point they were required to be “visual” with the end of the runway. The “checkerboard” would be straight ahead of them at that time, and they would commence a turn to the right and descend for their landing between the six-story apartment blocks of Kowloon City. Passengers would often clap and cheer as the wheels hit the ground. Having landed at Kai Tak many times, I can attest to what an exhilarating experience it was and especially appreciated what were considered to be the best views from the starboard side of the aircraft!
The airport was named after two businessmen, Sir Ho Kai and Mr. Au Tak, who were involved in a company formed in 1912 to reclaim land in Kowloon Bay for a residential housing project. The company failed and the reclaimed land was left vacant. The suitability of using this land as an airfield was later recognized and the first recorded flight from Kai Tai took place on Lunar New Year’s Day in 1925. Ten years later, with the increase in activity at the airfield, a control tower and hangar were constructed. The first commercial passenger flight landed on March 24, 1936 from Penang and was operated by Imperial Airways. In later years, Pan American World Airways began its famous Clipper flying boat service between Hong Kong and San Francisco. Other air services followed with Air France flights from Indochina, China National Aviation Corporation from Guangzhou and Shanghai and Eurasia Aviation Corporation operating between Hong Kong and Beijing.
After the Second World War, the government approved a master plan for airport development and in 1962, a passenger terminal building was erected. Turboprops were being replaced by jet aircraft and on April 11, 1970, the first Boeing B474 arrived in Hong Kong. Phenomenal growth occurred in the ensuing years. By 1996, the Kai Tak Airport reached an important milestone when it handled 29.5 million international passengers and 1.56 million tons of international cargo making it the globe’s third busiest airport for international passengers and first in the world for international cargo. Kai Tak still only had one runway (13/31), which extended into the sea. It was difficult to land during extreme weather conditions, especially when typhoon winds hit the former British Crown Colony. Pilots sometimes aborted their first landing approach, swinging the plane up and coming around for another attempt. Over time, Kai Tak simply outgrew its capacity. In 1996 over 30 million passengers landed every year, even though the airport was only designed to handle 24 million. The airport in the middle of Hong Kong made it difficult for city planners to build new skyscrapers because they would interfere with landing approaches. Something had to be done.
For anyone traveling to the Far East in the ‘80s and ‘90s, Kai Tak was probably the epitome of Asian airports. Massively overcrowded with a decidedly hair-raising approach pattern and delays to one out of every three flights, the chaos of the arrival drew an interesting parallel to the busy, bustling city passengers were about to witness. Although Kai Tak will always hold a special place in the hearts of most avgeeks, it was clear by this time that it had far outgrown its capacity. Lack of space meant adding a runway or more gates was out of the question. Its proximity to residential areas meant it was delivering unacceptable levels of noise pollution to more than 300,000 local people.
The new Hong Kong International Airport (HKIA) was conceived way back in the mid 1970s, but work on its construction did not begin until fifteen years later, in 1991. The mega project would see thousands of contractors working around the clock for seven years to complete the airport, a mission that cost a record-breaking $20 billion. To construct the new HKIA, both Chek Lap Kok and Lam Chau Islands had to be flattened and leveled. An additional 3.62 square miles was reclaimed from adjacent seabed to create a 4.82 square mile airport site. To put this in perspective, the construction of the airport added almost 1% to the entire surface area of Hong Kong!
But, building a surface for an airport was not all that needed to be accomplished. Road and rail links had to be added, which involved the construction of various bridges and tunnels, as well as several significant land reclamation projects. In all, the build involved ten separate projects, 225 construction contracts, and over 1,000 critical interfaces. Just hours after the airport was officially opened by Chinese President and General Secretary of the Communist Party Jiang Zemin, Air Force One delivered then United States President Bill Clinton to HKIA. He became the first foreign visitor to set foot in the new airport. Commercial operations began four days later.
The results were worth it. While we all miss the exhilaration of flying into Kai Tak, the Chek Lap Kok Airport is beautiful, spacious and very efficient. It should ably serve the City of Hong Kong for many years to come. In fact, approximately eighty million passengers a year are expected by 2040, the equivalent to numbers seen pre pandemic at London Heathrow and New York Kennedy Airports combined!
Until next time…safe travels.
Wow, even the description of the landing raised my adrenaline levels. I think Kai Tak is definitely better to be remembered than experienced!