Hong Kong Airport

Kai Tak was the international airport of Hong Kong. The airport was established in 1925. The airport was very small, it had only one runway. Kai Tak was situated in Kowloon city, the business district of Hong Kong.

In 1922 two businessmen formed the Kai Tak investment group to reclaim land in Kowloon for development. The business plan failed and the government acquired the land. In 1924 an aviation school put the land into service as an airport.
During the world war the Japanese army used prisoner of war laborers to expand Kai Tak. Two concrete runways were built.

In 1954 an official plan was made to modernize the Kai Tak airport. The original runways were replaced in 1957. Land reclamation made it possible to extend the runways.

During the 1980’s and 90’s the capacity of the Kai Tak International Airport was no longer enough. 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. The height of the buildings in Kowloon had to be limited for the takeoffs and landings of the airplanes. Initially the airport was located far from any residential areas, but the expansion of the residential areas and the airport resulted in the airport being very close to residential areas. This resulted in noise pollution for nearby residences, and a night curfew was established. There are laws in the Netherlands which prevent this sort of pollution. The expansion of airports like Schiphol is regulated by laws (aviation law) and the government.

In the late 1980s, the Hong Kong Government began searching for alternative locations for a new airport in Hong Kong to replace the old airport. The government decided to build the airport on an island. The new airport opened in 1998.

Kai Tak is known for the spectacular landing procedure.





(source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kai_Tak_Airport)