The site of the old Hong Kong Kai Tak Airport – famous for its notoriously challenging runway in the middle of the busy city center – is set to welcome a new sky-high landmark.

It’s been 25 years since Hong Kong’s Kai Tak airport closed. Pilot Russell Davie and photographer Daryl Chapman remember the glory days and share a few of the scariest moments.

The old Hong Kong International Airport operated from 1925 until 1998, before being closed and renamed Kai Tak Airport when the new Hong Kong International Airport opened.

The Kai Tak Cruise Terminal where the airport once stood. (Image: Getty) Many people are scared of flying, yet it remains the safest mode of transportation. This is despite all the recent incidents.

Kai Tak started out as an RAF landing strip, built on a vacant lot reclaimed from the waters by a failed business venture. It evolved with the city, becoming a full-fledged commercial airport as ...

THE FLOOR OF THE ARRIVALS LOUNGE AT THE FORMER KAI TAK AIRPORT displays a sign that reads “No Waiting,” but a dozen people still loiter. Not to greet passengers—the last one landed five ...

As labour was cheap, luxury and electronic goods began to be also manufactured in abundance in Hong Kong. In 1958, the short runway, at what was now called the Kai Tak aerodrome, was extended to 8,000 ...

HNA Group Co., the debt-laden Chinese conglomerate on a selling spree, agreed to dispose of its last plot of land near Hong Kong’s former Kai Tak airport, ending ambitions for a massive ...

It’s nearly 20 years since Hong Kong’s Kai Tak Airport closed, but I still miss it. It was so compact you came out of customs, rolled down a ramp and were in a taxi within minutes. And it was ...

Some of us remember the cramped Kai Tak airport, shuttered now for over a decade. We miss its decrepit charm and the roller-coaster ride to the aircraft carrier runway jutting into the harbor.