Well, I got back from Hong Kong this morning and I can confirm that no way will Kai Tak ever be re-opened
It was only the low-flying aircraft that prevented them from building skyscrapers on the Kowloon peninsular. Now they're leaping up all over the place and will eventually rival Central on the Island. As there's no more building land on Central, they've been continually reclaiming the harbour and moving the land further into the harbour. In fact the Star Ferry terminal is now 400 yards closer to Tsim Sha Tsui than when I was last there! In a few years you'll be able to walk across the harbour!
ATC still enjoy making the pilots work. With the whole of the South China sea available for a straight in approach to Chek Lap Kok, we came round the edge of Lantau Island at 90 degrees to the runway and made a sharp turn on to finals at about 2000ft and about 5 miles out with a strong crosswind in poor visibility. It wasn't a good landing and we used most of the runway to stop. A good old Hong Kong tradition!
It was my first experience of flying in and out of T5 at LHR and I was VERY impressed at the ease. Online check-in and seat choice 24 hours before, train straight into Paddington and a few paces walk to the Heathrow Express non-stop straight into the terminal. Just drop the bags off, find a bar and relax. I thought T5 was a single building but there are two satellites joined by space-age subway shuttles to the main building. It is totally awesome. It's not travel like the old days of course, but it's another step towards being beamed instantly from A to B. Even the bags found their way to HKG and back!
On the return flight we even pushed back 20 mins early and arrived at LHR a whole hour ahead of schedule which probably wasn't quite as thrilling for the poor people of Twickenham who we woke at 0445 :doho:
Ian
.?? Maybe a Japanese boogie woogie?
