Chek Lap Kok Airport was designed as a replacement for the
former Hong Kong International Airport (commonly known as Kai Tak Airport), built in 1925. Located in the densely built-up
Kowloon City District with a single runway extending into
Kowloon Bay, Hong Kong Airport had turned on the runway lights for expansion to cope with steadily increasing air traffic. By the 1990s, Kai Tak had become one of the world's busiest airports, being a major hub for multiple passenger airlines along with a major cargo and maintenance hub – it far exceeded its annual passenger and cargo design capacities, and one out of every three flights experienced delays, largely due to a lack of space for aircraft, gates, and a second runway. In addition,
noise mitigation measures restricted nighttime flights, as severe
noise pollution (exceeding 105
dB(A) in
Kowloon City) adversely affected an estimated 340,000 people. A 1974 planning study by the
Civil Aviation and
Public Works departments identified the small island of Chek Lap Kok, off
Lantau Island, as a possible future airport replacement site. Far from the congested city centre, flight paths would be routed over the
South China Sea rather than crowded urban areas, enabling efficient round-the-clock operation of multiple runways. The Chek Lap Kok (CLK) airport master plan and civil engineering studies were completed between 1982 and 1983, respectively. However, in February 1983, the government shelved the project for financial and economic reasons. In 1988, the Port & Airport Development Strategy (PADS) study was undertaken by consultants, headed by
Mott MacDonald Hong Kong Limited, reporting in December 1989. This study looked at forecasts for both airport and port traffic to the year 2011 and came up with three recommended strategies for overall strategic development in Hong Kong. One of the three assumed maintaining the existing airport at Kai Tak; a second assumed a possible airport in the Western Harbour between
Lantau Island and
Hong Kong Island, and the third assumed a new airport at Chek Lap Kok. The consultants produced detailed analyses for each scenario, enabling the government to consider these appraisals for each of the three "Recommended Strategies". In October 1989, the governor of Hong Kong announced to the Legislative Council that a decision had been made on the territory's long-term port and airport development strategy. The strategy was to be adopted that included a replacement airport at Chek Lap Kok and incorporating new container terminals 8 and 9 at
Stonecutters Island and east of the
Tsing Yi island, respectively. In the PADS study, the consultants advised that the earliest the airport could be opened was January 1998. However, in reaching the government's decision, this date was changed to January 1997, six months before the
handover of Hong Kong to China. Construction of the new airport began in 1991. As construction progressed, an agreement was reached with China that as much as possible of the airport would be completed before the handover to China in July 1997. Former British prime minister,
Margaret Thatcher, opened the
Tsing Ma Bridge, the main access to
Lantau Island and the airport and its supporting community in April 1997. Soon after, the airport itself opened in July 1998. Hong Kong International Airport was built on a large
artificial island formed by flattening and levelling the former
Chek Lap Kok and
Lam Chau islands ( and respectively) and
reclaiming of the adjacent seabed. The airport site with its reclamation, added nearly 1% to Hong Kong's total surface area, connecting to the north side of Lantau Island near
Tung Chung new town. Construction of the new airport was only part of the
Airport Core Programme, which also involved the construction of new roads and rail links to the airport, with associated bridges and tunnels, and major land reclamation projects on both
Hong Kong Island and in
Kowloon. The project holds the record for the most expensive airport project ever, according to
Guinness World Records. The construction of the new airport was also voted as one of the Top 10 Construction Achievements of the 20th Century at the ConExpo conference in 1999. The detailed design for the airport terminal was awarded to a consortium led by Mott Connell (the Hong Kong office of UK consultant Mott MacDonald) with
BAA PLC as the specialist designers for airport-related aspects,
Foster and Partners as the architects, and
Ove Arup as the specialist structural designers for the roof. Mott Connell was the designer for the foundations, all other structural components, and the mechanical and electrical work. The sides of the terminals, predominantly glass, were designed to break during high-speed winds, relieving pressure and allowing the terminal to withstand an intense typhoon. The airport was officially opened in an
opening ceremony by the
President of the People's Republic of China and
General Secretary of the Communist Party Jiang Zemin at noon
Hong Kong Time on 2 July 1998. Hours later,
Air Force One, carrying the
president of the United States Bill Clinton, landed at the new airport and became the first foreign visitor to arrive at the new airport. The actual operation of the airport commenced on 6 July 1998, concluding the six-year construction that cost 60 billion US dollars. On that day at 06:25
Hong Kong Time,
Cathay Pacific Flight CX 889 from New York
JFK Airport became the first
commercial flight to land at the airport, pipping the original CX 292 from Rome which was the scheduled as the first arrival. However, the airport had already started to experience some technical difficulties on the first day of opening. The
flight information display system (FIDS) had suddenly shut down, causing long delays. Shortly afterwards, the cargo communication link with Kai Tak, where all the necessary data was stored went down. During the same period, someone accidentally deleted an important database for cargo services. This meant that cargo data had to be manually stored. At one point, the airport had to turn away all air cargo and freight headed for and exported from Hong Kong (except food and medical supplies) while it sorted out the huge mess. HKIA simply could not keep up without an automated assistant-computer system. At one time, the government reopened the
cargo terminal at Kai Tak Airport to handle freight traffic because of a breakdown at the new cargo terminal, named Super Terminal One (ST1). On 31 July 2000,
Todd Salimuchai, a regularized illegal immigrant in Hong Kong with
no provable nationality, forced his way through a security checkpoint using a fake pistol, took a woman hostage, and boarded a Cathay Pacific aircraft. He was demanded to be flown to
Burma, which he claimed was his native country but had refused to admit him due to his lack of documents. He surrendered to the police two and a half hours later. Besides T2, the SkyCity Nine Eagles Golf Course was opened in 2007 whereas the second airport hotel, the Hong Kong SkyCity
Marriott Hotel, and a permanent cross-boundary ferry terminal, the
Skypier, began operations in 2008 and 2009 respectively. Development around T2 also includes the
AsiaWorld-Expo which started operation in late 2005. A second passenger concourse, the North Satellite Concourse (NSC), opened in 2010, followed by the Midfield Concourse in December 2015. During August 2019, the airport was shut down multiple times as demonstrations were held inside the airport during the
2019–20 Hong Kong protests, over 160 flights were cancelled as both the arrivals and departures sections of the airport were occupied. The third runway, also known as the North Runway, was opened in July 2022. It is the first part of the
Hong Kong International Airport Master Plan 2030 to be implemented. The third runway is 650 hectares in land area, roughly the size of
Gibraltar. The Centre Runway and Terminal 2 of the airport were then closed to facilitate construction works, expansion and upgrades. The Centre Runway was reopened on 28 November 2024. Terminal 2 is undergoing major expansion and is expected to re-open in 2025. ==Composition==