“Kowloon City used to be the place for dinner before flying from Kai Tak Airport. Now it’s quiet,” says Victor Lau, a helicopter pilot with the Government Flying Service (GFS) of China’s Special Administrative Region of Hong Kong (HKSAR). In July 1998, the GFS was the first tenant of the abandoned Kai Tak Airport to move 45 minutes west to the new Chek Lap Kok (CLK) Airport on Lantau Island. Five years later the new airport also grew quiet, this time from severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS). From March through May, airlines parked aircraft and the GFS flew the bulk of operations.At CLK, GFS deputy operations manager Leonard Leung parks a white Chinese bicycle in the cavernous hangar. “Good space, but everyone must travel a very long way.” The HKSAR pays pilots a commuting subsidy, but more critically “CLK adds five or 10 minutes to every rescue,” said Lau. “And at Kai Tak we could visually check out the weather in every direction–now we’re blocked by mountains.”But SARS cast a deeper shadow. Across the ramp from the GFS, Hong Kong airlines might resume full operations by next month, though normal revenues are nowhere in sight. In the first six months, airlines serving Hong Kong slashed prices by half to two-thirds, including regional carrier Dragonair. Cheap tickets alone could not buy consumer confidence. Rival Thai Airways even offered $100,000 to anyone catching SARS while flying its airline.

In May, 102 organizations–including 27 airlines, 11 hotel chains and the national tourist boards of Hong Kong and other Asian regions–campaigned with far-reaching deals, indefinitely raising the toll of SARS-based cuts but allowing some relief to aviation. “Operation Skyfit” discounts landing fees to CLK from 10 percent to half if they are carrying less than a 20-percent load, while select passengers can grab a free ride, courtesy of Rolls-Royce, to city center.