Tag Archives: Kai Tak Airport

Garden Hill and the approach to Kai Tak Airport

‘Checkerboard Hill’ and the runway lights atop the Kowloon City rooftops were well known features along the approach to the former Kai Tak Airport in Hong Kong. But they weren’t the only lights guiding planes across Kowloon and onto runway […]

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Charts and plans for Kai Tak Airport

Kai Tak Airport was once the international airport for Hong Kong, with the single runway and eight jetbridges somehow handing 30 million passengers and 1.5 million tonnes of freight per year, before it was replaced by the current Hong Kong […]

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Scale models of Kai Tak Airport

Unfortunately for aviation enthusiasts Kai Tak Airport no longer exists, but it does live on in model form. Photo via ‘The Diecast Flyer’ Donald Gardner from ‘The Diecast Flyer’ has the full story on the model. Hu Chow has created […]

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Closure of Kai Tak Airport and the transfer to Chek Lap Kok

The closure of Hong Kong’s Kai Tak Airport in 1998 and the overnight switch to the new airport at Chek Lap Kok always intrigued me – how did they manage such a massive move?

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Kai Tak Airport arrival in 1998

My first visit to Hong Kong was in February 1998 – a few months after the territory had been handed back to Mainland China, but while the world renowned Kai Tai Airport was still open to passengers. Here is a YouTube video showing the hair raising approach to the airport.

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