Hong Kong International Airport expects flights to be cut starting Tuesday as the Asian financial hub braces for one of its strongest super typhoons in years.
Wing Yeung, director of service delivery at Airport Authority Hong Kong, said during a briefing Monday that while the airport will remain open, there will be a large reduction in the number of flights. Cathay Pacific Airways Ltd., the city’s flagship carrier, said more than 500 flights will be canceled due to the inclement weather and they will gradually resume during Thursday daytime.
The Airport Authority Hong Kong said in a statement earlier on Monday that it has “commenced preparations for the typhoon, covering areas such as apron safety, flight operations, passenger care, ground transportation services between the airport and the city and staff rest areas.”
The Civil Aviation Department referred requests for comment to the airport authority.
The city’s airport shutdown underscores the risks Ragasa poses to Hong Kong’s densely-packed 7.5 million residents and its economy. The storm has already intensified into a super typhoon, packing sustained winds of 143 miles (230 kilometers) per hour near its core, equivalent to a Category 4 hurricane, according to the Hong Kong Observatory.
By limiting flights, officials are aiming to avoid a repeat of Typhoon Koinu in October 2023, when more than 10,000 travelers were stranded overnight after that storm caught authorities off guard. Airlines are currently planning to reschedule long-haul flights to mitigate disruptions, while short-haul services leaving Tuesday may not return immediately, the people familiar said.
Aircraft not in use will be flown out of Hong Kong to avoid damage from debris. A limited number of cargo flights could resume late Wednesday, though no decision has been finalized, the people added.
Ragasa—a Filipino word for rapid or fast motion—was located in the Luzon Strait roughly 1,100 kilometers southeast of Hong Kong as of Monday morning. Government work and classes in metropolitan Manila and in nearly 30 provinces across the Philippines were suspended on Monday due to forecasts of heavy rain.
Its current trajectory puts it on course to swipe Hong Kong, and make landfall sometime Wednesday over Guangdong province, the observatory says.
