Hong Kong International Airport is considering grounding all passenger flights for 36 hours — the longest suspension in recent memory — as the city braces for Super Typhoon Ragasa, Bloomberg reported, citing people familiar with the matter.
Authorities are weighing a suspension of all flights from 6 p.m. local time Tuesday until 6 a.m. Thursday as the powerful storm approaches, the people said, asking not to be identified. A formal announcement is expected Monday. Qantas Airways Ltd. has already notified passengers on its website that the airport will be shut during those hours.
The Hong Kong Observatory said it plans to issue its first precautionary signal around noon Monday. Neither the Airport Authority Hong Kong nor the Civil Aviation Department immediately responded to requests for comment.
The potential 36-hour halt would be significantly longer than past weather-related shutdowns. In September 2023, Typhoon Saola — one of Hong Kong’s strongest storms on record — forced a 20-hour suspension of flights, while July’s Typhoon Wipha disrupted operations for 13 hours.
Super Typhoon Ragasa has already intensified, packing sustained winds of 230 kilometers (143 miles) per hour near its core, equivalent to a Category 4 hurricane, according to the observatory. On average, Hong Kong International Airport handles 1,100 flights and 190,000 passengers daily, with 58 million travelers passing through in the 12 months to August.
Cathay Pacific Airways Ltd., which accounts for 45% of the airport’s traffic, faces the most disruption. The carrier has waived ticket-change fees for travel between Sept. 23 and 25, while other airlines are offering similar flexibility. Aircraft not in use are expected to be flown out of the city to avoid damage from storm debris. Officials may allow limited cargo operations to resume late Wednesday, though no decision has been finalized, Bloomberg said.
The looming suspension also reflects lessons from Typhoon Koinu in October 2023, when more than 10,000 passengers were stranded overnight after authorities were caught unprepared. This time, airlines are planning to reschedule long-haul services and adjust short-haul operations to reduce chaos.
As of Monday morning, Ragasa — whose name means “rapid motion” in Filipino — was about 1,100 kilometers southeast of Hong Kong in the Luzon Strait. The storm has already prompted school and work closures across metropolitan Manila and nearly 30 Philippine provinces. Current forecasts suggest it could brush past Hong Kong before making landfall in Guangdong province on Wednesday.
