The government reclaimed land to build a new runway with a length of 2194m, extending from Kowloon Bay to Victoria Harbour to replace the old runway. This became the runway 13/3 1 that was still in use before the closure of Kai Tak Airport. The reclamation project in Kowloon Bay was completed on September 1958, and the runway was officially opened on September 12. The project moved Kai Tak Airport to the south. The original runway was partially converted into an apron, and the new Pugang Industrial Zone and Prince Edward Road East were built in the north. The old runway became the bus terminus of the HS's low-rent housing in Kai Tak Village and Wong Tai Sin Resettlement Area (the Kowloon bus in operation was successively displayed as Kowloon City/Zhuyuan), while a Royal Air Force hangar built on the side of Diamond Village was not demolished. 1959, runway lighting system put into use.
1962 The new passenger terminal building and parking lot of Kai Tak Airport were completed and put into use, and the control tower was moved to the new passenger terminal building. 1965 The old passenger terminal building was demolished. 1970, the runway was expanded to 254 1 m, meeting the demand of a new generation of jumbo jets. In April of the same year 1 1, the first scheduled Boeing 747 landed at Kai Tak Airport and was operated by Pan Am. 1974 65438+1October 7, the airport installed an approach instrument navigation system, which enabled the aircraft to land on the runway of 13 in bad weather, and the utilization rate of the airport increased greatly. 1975 The runway was reclaimed and expanded to 3390 meters. At that time, there were 3 1 airlines operating in Hong Kong. Since the early 1970s, the Royal Air Force stopped using Kai Tak Airport and Kai Tak became the national airport.
1976, the freight station was officially opened; Secondary surveillance radar is also used to strengthen air traffic control. In the same year1October 5th, 165438, Concorde, which can fly at supersonic speed, landed at Kai Tak Airport for the first time. The next day, Concorde arrived in Hong Kong again via Singapore for an official visit. The passenger volume of Kai Tak Airport in that year was 4 million passengers.
1982, the fourth expansion project of the airport passenger terminal building was completed. In the same year, Regal airport hotel opened and became the only hotel near Kai Tak Airport.
After the airport was moved from 65438 to 0998, it was renamed Regal Kai Tak Hotel and later Regal Oriental Hotel.
1986, the annual passenger traffic of Kai Tak Airport exceeded100000 for the first time. During the period of 1987, the government continued to expand and improve Kai Tak Airport to increase passenger capacity before the new airport was finally completed. 1988, the fifth phase expansion project of the airport passenger station was completed, which can handle180,000 passengers per year, and the airport entry control is fully computerized.
From 65438 to 0996, Kai Tak Airport ranked the third busiest airport in the world in terms of international passenger volume, handling 29.5 million international passengers. In terms of international freight throughput, it handled 6.5438+0.56 million metric tons of goods from all over the world, ranking first in the world.