HONG KONG - TWO Hong Kong Airlines pilots have been sacked after trying to take off from a taxiway rather than the main runway at the city's airport, a report said on Sunday.

The pair, an Indonesian captain and Argentinian co-pilot, were only stopped by an alert air traffic controller who saw them speeding on the taxiway and warned them to stop, according to the Sunday Morning Post.

Their Boeing 737 was carrying 122 passengers and seven crew, the report said.

The flight, bound for Cheongju in South Korea from Hong Kong International Airport, took off after the aborted attempt on September 13.

Taxiways at the airport run the full length of the runways but are narrower, have green lighting and no lights down the centre, the paper said.

The two were dismissed after an investigation by the southern Chinese city's Civil Aviation Department, which recommended improvements to lighting and marking at the airport, one of Asia's busiest.

The pilot told management he was not making a takeoff and was merely travelling at speed, the report said.

Hong Kong Airlines, along with sister airline Hong Kong Express, flies to 30 cities across Asia.