| 1924 |
The
Kowloon Aviation Field becomes the first landig strip of the
Colony, about 1 kilometre northeast of the future Kai Tak
runway. |
 |
|
| 23.
March 1936 |
The
first scheduled commercial flight, a four-engine de Havilland
biplane operated by Imperial, arrived from Penang with one
passenger and 16 bags of mail. |
|
|
| September
1936 |
The
first Pan Am clipper touched down in the Victoria harbour.
Pan Am established the first direct connection to Northern
America with regular flights to San Francisco. |
|
|
| 8.
December 1941 |
During
the Second World War, the Japanese took control of Kai Tak
airport. During their 44-month occupation, they built up two
new, crossing runways to allow larger bombers to land at the
airfield. |
|
|
| 24
September 1946 |
Cathay
Pacific Airways was founded by two adventurers, American Roy
C. Farrell and Australian Sydney H. de Kantzow. The airline's
first aircraft was a used DC-3. |
|
|
| 24
August 1965 |
A
US Marine Hercules C-130 taking troops back to Vietnam burst
into flames seconds after lifting off from Runway 13. Only
12 of the 71 military personnel on board could be rescued
before the aircraft sunk in the harbour. This was the worst
accident in history of Kai Tak. |
|
|
| 1979 |
Cathay
Pacific took delivery of its first Jumbo-Jet, a Boeing 747-200.
With this aircraft, the Lodon service was established in June
1980. |
|
|
| 11
October 1989 |
The
government decided to construct an all-new airport at Chek
Lap Kok. |
|
|
| 5.
July 1998 |
The
last day of operation at Kai Tak, before the relocation started
in the night to the 6th July. |
|
|
| 6.
July 1998 |
Hongkong's
new airport, Chek Lap Kok opened for operations. |
|
|
| 22.
August 1999 |
The
first fatal accident happened at Chek Lap Kok, when a China
Airlines MD-11 crashed while landing during very bad weather
conditions. Because of the fast help througt the rescue crews,
only three of the 315 people were killed. |
|
|
| August
2000 |
Hong
Kong International Airport was nominated as Asia's Best Airport
by Asiaweek Magazine, in its special edition listing "the
best things in Asia". |
|
|
