Comparative photographs of Kai Tak Aerodrome from practically the same angle, that on the left was taken in 1931 and shows the first hangar on the area, the roof of which was covered with over 82.000 sq. ft. of Robertson's Patent Roofing. That on the right was taken recently.
With the expansion of the Sino-Japanese war, Kai Tak aerodrome increased in importance as a centre from which goods and personnel could be flown into and out of Free China. As a result of several incidents with the Japanese, flights to and from China took place only at night, but each night as many as 20 aircraft arrived or took off, taking to China important persons and bringing out such vital goods and commodities as wolfram, tin, gold and bristles. During the eleven months of 1941, 14,000 passengers and over 1,000 tons of freight were transported through the airport.
Al the outbreak of the Pacific War on 8th December, 1941, the first place to be attacked was the airfield where the Japanese destroyed every aircraft outside the hangars. In spite of this, the six remaining aircraft succeeded in transport- ing from the Colony during the first two days of the War over 400 persons and many tons of vital stores necessary for the continuation of air transportation in China.
During the Japanese occupation little civilian aviation took place but the Japanese did extend the airfield very consider- ably for war operations and communications. They lengthened the runways, as well as incorporating nearby acres for general purposes. To lengthen the runways at the only end, they
Concrete landing stage used by seaplane passengers.
A view of the road leading to the Reception Building.
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bull-dozed, burnt or dynamited thousands of houses, shops and tenement buildings and the whole population of a very concentrated residential area were ordered out. Those were war-time methods. Many officials prior to the Japanese occupation had more or less the same ideas of area expansion -but British and peacetime consideration for the well-being of human beings prevented such forthright methods.
The Postwar Phase
The growth of traffic. With the liberation of the Colony aviation had literally to start again from scratch.
As soon as the War was over the Royal Air Force operated an air service to Hong Kong transporting key personnel for the British Military Administration which was engaged in rehabili- tating the Colony and repatriating to the United Kingdom some of those people who had been interned. On the 22nd November 1945, three months after the liberation, civil avia- tion began again with services to China by the China National Aviation Corporation. To-day, Hong Kong has taken its place in the world wide system of civil aviation. From all parts of the globe airlines meet at Hong Kong to scatter again over the Far East. The network of routes goes southward to Hanoi, Saigon, Bangkok, Singapore, Rangoon, and on to Australia or India and Europe; eastward to Manila and to the United States or South America; northward to Japan and north and west to all parts of China. To carry traffic which at the end of the year amounted to 25,000 passengers a month and large quantities of mail and freight, aircraft of the United Kingdom, Hong Kong, China, Philippines, Siam, U.S.A., France and Norway, arrive at the rate of 30 a day. In under 10 years the number of people flying in and out of the Colony has risen from about 6,000 to nearly a quarter of a million a year; about 75% of the travellers pass to and from China.
During the year 1948 Hong Kong Airport reported record figures for passengers, mail and freight handled. The total number of passengers, inward and outward, for the period January December 1948 was 227,681, the weight of mail amounted to 325,506 kilograms and commercial freight to 1,727 metric tons. The number of civil aircraft landings was 7,144.
The monthly averages for the year of 1948 are as follows:-
Civil aircraft landing Passengers, in and out
Freight, in and out
Mail, in and out
595 18,973
142 tons 27,375 kgs.
During the year the total value of freight by air imported into the Colony amounted to $67,200,000 and air freight exported was valued at $15,000,000 a total of over five million pounds sterling.
The airline companies. Some fourteen airline companies regularly call at Hong Kong. The long route scheduled opera- tors are British Overseas Airways Corporation with a flying boat service from the United Kingdom to Japan, Pan American World Airways from San Francisco, and Air France from Paris. The two Chinese companies, China National Aviation Corporation and Central Air Transport Corporation and the British company, Hong Kong Airways Ltd., carry the major part of the traffic into China. Cathay Pacific Airways Ltd. are a progressive local company operating both scheduled and charter flights. Philippine Air Lines Inc, carry a large amount of traffic to Manila and beyond and two Siamese air- lines operate on the route to Bangkok.
The landplanes used are almost exclusively Skymasters and Dakotas but shortly one company will add Convairs to its fleet. Facilities for flying boats, operating to a service schedule, are second to none. Using the same passenger building for dispatch and reception, the flying boats alight on the waters of the bay, using an alighting strip which runs parallel to the main land runway and not more than a 1,000 yards away from the landplane airport. The well-constructed floating landing stage is but a few yards from the flying-boat mooring buoys. Passengers therefore suffer no "sea-voyage" after their air trip.