Hong Kong International Airport

Hong Kong International Airport (HKG) is one of the defining engineering feats of twentieth-century aviation, built on a 1,255-hectare artificial island off Chek Lap Kok by levelling two islands and reclaiming the sea between them. It opened in July 1998, replacing the famously hemmed-in Kai Tak, and has since developed into the world's busiest cargo airport (virtually every year since 2010) and one of Asia's top five passenger hubs. HKG handled 53.1M passengers and 4.9M tonnes of cargo in 2024. It sits at just 28 ft (9 m) elevation, 30 km (19 mi) west of central Hong Kong. HKG's three-runway system became fully operational in late 2024 when the third runway (07C/25C at 12,467 ft) entered commercial service alongside a comprehensive reconfiguration of the existing two strips into the final parallel layout. The Three-Runway System, a HKD 141 billion project, is the largest civil aviation infrastructure investment in Hong Kong's history and raises declared capacity to 120M passengers and 10M tonnes of cargo annually. Terminal 1 — Foster + Partners' 550,000 sq m main building — and the T1 Satellite and T2 concourse support 220+ destinations. HKG is the home base of Cathay Pacific and Cathay's cargo subsidiary, HK Express, and Greater Bay Airlines. Its strategic position within five hours' flight of half the world's population, together with Sky Bridge 'Sky Pier' ferry access to nine Greater Bay Area ports and a dedicated cross-boundary coach terminal, makes it the principal international gateway for the mainland PRD when long-haul widebody reach is required. Skytrax has ranked HKG World's Best Airport multiple times, most recently in the early 2010s.