About 350 flights were canceled at Hong Kong International Airport on Sunday, though most operations are expected to resume in the afternoon as Typhoon Noul gradually moves away from the city, the Airport Authority said.
The authority said it expected to handle about 675 flights throughout the day under its flight rescheduling control system. Yeung Tat-wing, director of service delivery, said the airport would be exceptionally busy in the evening and overnight.
To clear the backlog and fully restore normal operations by Monday morning, all three runways may operate overnight if necessary.
Yeung said the authority would coordinate with the Hong Kong Observatory and the Civil Aviation Department to reschedule flights based on the airport’s latest operational capacity. Exact departure and arrival times will depend on prevailing weather conditions and runway status, he added.
At the height of the storm on Saturday night, about 2,000 travelers, mostly departing passengers, were stranded in the terminals. A temporary waiting area was set up with 600 additional seats and mobile device charging stations.
Around 100 airport staff were deployed to distribute water, food, blankets and dining vouchers to affected passengers, while some restaurants and shops remained open around the clock.
The airport’s taxi queue ticketing system issued about 1,800 queue numbers overnight. At its peak, nearly 400 people were waiting for taxis, with an average waiting time of about one hour. The queues had mostly cleared by 4am.
A passenger traveling from Shanghai to San Francisco via Hong Kong said her flight was canceled because of the typhoon. With nearby hotels fully booked, she was stranded at the airport for more than 10 hours.
She said she spent four to five hours waiting at the transfer desk to rebook her ticket. She eventually paid for another flight to return to the United States for work and to take care of her cat.
Another traveler returning from South Korea to Macau landed late on Saturday night but had to stay overnight at the terminal due to the temporary closure of the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge.
A passenger bound for Thailand said heavy traffic on highways leading to the airport added about half an hour to his journey, as he had to make a detour through Tuen Mun.
