Hong Kong is preparing to scale back air traffic from Tuesday evening as Super Typhoon Ragasa pushes across the Luzon Strait toward the Pearl River Delta.
Airlines and local authorities warned of rapidly deteriorating conditions, and multiple carriers said they expect a 36-hour suspension of passenger flights at Hong Kong International Airport beginning Tuesday night.
Qantas said the shutdown would run from 8 p.m. local time on September 23 through 8 a.m. on September 25.
The airport authority has not issued a formal closure order but said it was closely monitoring the storm.
The Hong Kong government’s steering committee on extreme weather said the Observatory may hoist Signal No. 8 between 1 p.m. and 4 p.m. on Tuesday, with gale to storm force winds expected on Wednesday and the possibility of hurricane force gusts offshore and on high ground.
The advisory urged residents and businesses to finalize contingency plans before conditions worsen.
Cathay Pacific told customers it expects widespread disruption and is offering fee-free changes and refunds for tickets issued on or before September 21 for travel between September 23 and 25.
The airline has warned that more than 500 flights could be canceled if the 36-hour suspension proceeds and says arrivals and departures will cease from Tuesday evening until resuming during daytime hours on Thursday.
Hong Kong Airlines posted a running list of cancellations, including long-haul services, and said online check-in may be unavailable for some flights.
The carrier’s latest update was issued late Monday local time as the city’s four major airlines worked through large-scale schedule changes. Travelers were urged to rebook early and to expect extended call-center wait times.
Local media and industry outlets estimated that roughly 700 flights could be scrubbed around the peak of the storm’s impact, underscoring the severity of the disruption at one of Asia’s busiest hubs.
Even a single day of curtailed operations at Hong Kong tends to ripple through regional schedules and cargo flows; a 36-hour stoppage would be felt across airline networks in Asia Pacific and beyond.
Ragasa has already forced closures and evacuations in parts of the northern Philippines and triggered alerts across Taiwan and southeastern China.
As of Monday, meteorologists said the cyclone was among the strongest seen this year, with sustained winds well above the threshold for a Category 4 hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson scale.
The Hong Kong Observatory said conditions would worsen rapidly from Tuesday, with frequent squalls and thunderstorms likely.
The immediate steps are straightforward, if your itinerary involves Hong Kong or nearby airports this week, check your airline’s travel advisories and monitor email or app notifications.
Carriers are generally waiving change fees and allowing rebooking into later dates, but available seats may be limited until airline operations normalize.
If you must transit through the region, build in a cushion and have a back-up plan through alternative hubs.
The storm also carries implications for investors and logistics planners. Hong Kong is a key node for premium belly-hold cargo moving between mainland China and global markets.
Prolonged disruption can delay high-value shipments in electronics, pharmaceuticals, and e-commerce, and can tighten near-term airfreight capacity on Southeast Asia routes.
Any meaningful damage to airport infrastructure or ground systems would lengthen recovery times, though authorities emphasized that contingency staffing and equipment have been deployed ahead of the storm’s arrival.
