Published : 2024-07-06

On July 6, 1998, the final flight took off at 12:02 a.m. from Kai Tak Airport (啟德機場) in Kowloon City, Hong Kong, marking the airport's official closure.

At 6:27 a.m. on the same day, the new airport located in Chek Lap Kok (赤鱲角) in the Outlying Islands District was completed and put into operation, taking over the name "Hong Kong International Airport".

Kai Tak Airport was once one of the busiest international airports in the world. Its passenger volume was at one point the third highest in the world, and its freight volume was the first.

However, due to its location in the city and the geographical limitations, the area around the airport was densely built-up, which left tight airspace and made taking off and landing there quite risky.

Also, under the constraint of limited land area, new runways could only be built through land reclamation.

The last flight to arrive at Kai Tak Airport was Dragonair's flight KA841, which landed at 11:39 p.m.

The last flight to depart was Cathay Pacific's flight CX251, whose destination was London, the capital of the UK. Shortly after taking off, a runway light-off ceremony was held at Kai Tak Airport at 1 a.m., which officially closed the airport.

It's worth mentioning that from 5:30 p.m. on July 5 to 6:30 a.m. on July 6, the Hong Kong Government carried out a race-against-time relocation operation.

For this mission, more than 1,100 vehicle trips, 14 barge flights, and 30 airplanes were utilised.

Since midnight, a large number of police officers even entered the departure hall and the arrivals hall on the ground floor, forming an advancing human wall to get the public to leave as quickly as possible for clearance.