First out: captain's surprise
After a last-minute plane and gate change, the first outbound commercial flight - CX907 to Manila - started taxiing at 7.03am and lifted off at 7.18am.
Normally scheduled for departure at 7.30am, the Cathay Pacific flight carrying 207 passengers was brought forward to ensure the airline made history, beating Dragonair's flight.
It was Captain Neil Woodward's and co-pilot Ross Langley's first flight from Chek Lap Kok and they had only taken a single simulator ride a week before.
'I didn't request it, it was just coincidence,' Captain Woodward said. 'I actually expected one of the management pilots to do the first flight and for us to do the ferry flights last night in the move from Kai Tak to Chek Lap Kok.' The flight took off heading east, swinging south over Tung Lung. From Kai Tak, it would have taken off heading southeast, over the Lei Yue Mun Strait and Tung Lung.
'We're seeing different parts of Hong Kong now. I felt a little bit of nostalgia during my last landing at Kai Tak yesterday. I felt kind of sad, it's the end of an era,' Captain Woodward said.
'I used to enjoy flying there. Kai Tak is unique and I think the best pilots enjoyed landing there. I think everyone is going to miss the approach into Kai Tak.
'The landing at Chek Lap Kok will not be as challenging or as much fun. It's a straight-in procedure, the same as 95 per cent of airports.' When the 41-year-old pilot with 24 years' service received his roster last month, his first concern was getting to the new airport at 5.30am.
It used to take him less than 10 minutes to get to the old airport from his Laguna City home. Yesterday, he caught a taxi to Kowloon Station and took the Airport Express, arriving with half an hour to spare.
'For all of us, it was our first day. So we wandered around trying to find the plane. Being new, we just had to follow the signs, the same as the passengers.'
