Hong Kong’s three-runway airport system to be completed by end of 2024 – 26 years after opening

Hong Kong's International Airport, commonly known as Chek Lap Kok, has been big, bold and brash since it opened in 1998, exactly 26 years ago.

Rushed to beat the deadline for the transfer of sovereignty from the UK to the Peoples Republic of China, the airport was constructed on an artificial island reclaimed from the sea. It became one of the world's top 10 airports for passengers and the leading one for cargo.

But within the last few years it has reached capacity and was in need of the shot in the arm that is the third runway, which opened in 2022 (while one of the original two closed for maintenance) and with associated terminal construction.

The entire shebang will be open, up, and running by the end of 2024, at which point the managing authority, Airport Authority Hong Kong (AAHK), can seriously start to think about it pushing further into the top 10 rankings, as an adjacent airport city serving a population close to 100 million comes increasingly on line.

But it won't be all plain sailing just yet, as the millions of passengers that were lost during the COVID-19 pandemic have yet fully to be recovered.