From out of the past an airplane lands at Kai Tak that opened for business in 1925 and closed in 1998.

     Now in 2024 IATA World Cargo Symposium meets and the air cargo world returns as the future lights up Asia World Expo in Hong Kong beginning March 12.
     There is a saying that the construction crane is the national bird of China, and certainly anybody arriving in Hong Kong for the upcoming WCS will see a veritable nest of these “birds” as work continues apace developing Hong Kong International Airport located on the island of Chek Lap Kok in western Hong Kong.
     This being my 50th year in Hong Kong I can of course remember the good old days of Kai Tak, which despite its constrained size did a remarkable job of handling enormous growth in Hong Kong aviation through its final sad closure in 1998. I believe it is true to say that sometime during that era a very high proportion of all the worlds B747’s passed through Hong Kong on any one day, it could be some Kai Tak myth but then again, it's quite possible.
     And of course, we all miss the nail-biting approach over Kowloon and the final turn at the chequer board, often viewed from a flight deck jump seat in those pre 9/11 days.
     Fast forward to today and HKIA stands at an incredibly strategic location, connected to Macau and Zhuhai to the west through the bridge across the Pearl River and to the north to Shenzhen, Dongguan and even Guangzhou with a network of world-class rail and road infrastructure.
     In the words of the legendary Peter Sutch, CBE, who worked his way up through Swire (the owners of Cathay Pacific) from opening Osaka for CX ( the first post war foreign carrier) through to being the Taipan of Swire HK is all about Location, Location, Location.
     When it comes to HK there will always be the naysayers ready to jump in and claim that Hong Kong is in a state of decline, quite a number of Western media entities such as the Financial Times and Bloomberg regularly come out with such appraisals, but time and time again they have been proven wrong and when it comes to the world of air cargo Hong Kong continues to sit at the top of the tree, being the largest cargo airport in the world in 2022 (the latest available rankings).
     To the best of my memory 2024 will be actually the first time that WCS will land in Hong Kong, there is certainly a great deal of excitement amongst the HK air cargo industry at this event, everybody is very much looking forward to seeing the world of air cargo touchdown in our still unique and wonderful city.
     Look for us at World Cargo Symposium.
Bob Rogers