Hundreds of flights were cancelled at Hong Kong’s airport as Super Typhoon Regasa made in on the city, with weathermen saying it would be the most intense storm to strike this year. 

Service Delivery director at the Airport Authority Hong Kong (AAHK) Wing Yeung Tak-wing said after 6 pm on Tuesday, there will be only a few flights taking off and landing at the airport, with all flights expected to be canceled on Wednesday. More than 700 flights have been cancelled between Tuesday evening and Thursday morning.

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Among the hardest hit was Cathay Pacific Airlines, which cancelled nearly all inbound and outbound passenger flights after 6 pm Tuesday, with no plans to resume operations until Thursday.

The airline has canceled over 500 flights for the period. Hong Kong Airlines said it was suspending flights for the same time period, while Hong Kong Express Airways cancelled more than 100 flights across three days, but added four additional flights early Tuesday.

Many of the world's largest airlines have taken voluntary action to cancel flights to and from Hong Kong, including Emirates, British Airways, Delta Air Lines, Qantas, and Air India, as well as Air New Zealand, Qatar Airways, American Airlines, Japan Airlines, and Gulf Air. Thai Airways, Ethiopian Airlines, and KLM did the same. 

On September 23 and 24, Emirates announced the cancellation of eight flights linking Hong Kong and Dubai and shuttle flights to Bangkok. Air India in particular singled out the cancellations of AI314 Delhi-Hong Kong on 23 September and AI315 Hong Kong- Delhi on 24 September, apologizing for the disruption and offering full refunds.

Hong Kong International Airport (HKIA) processed around 600 flights on Tuesday — approximately half of its normal daily average of 1,100 flights — before ceasing most operations at 6 pm. The airport is operating its three runways with severe restrictions for essential services and cargo flights.

The Hong Kong Observatory raised the typhoon warning signal to No. 10, its highest level, at 2:40 am Wednesday, just an hour after signaling a No. 9 alert as Regasa passed closest to Hong Kong, packing winds of up to 220 km/h (137 mph). 

The observatory warned of “large ocean swells and significant storm surges reaching four to five meters above normal tide levels,” which could stir up the potential for severe flooding, particularly on eastern and southern coasts. 

The severity of the storm was reinforced when Hong Kong’s leader, Chief Secretary for Administration Eric Chan, compared it to super typhoon Hato in 2017 and Mangkhut in 2018, storms that accounted for HK$4.6 billion ($592 million) in damages and hundreds of injuries and infrastructure damage.

Beyond Hong Kong, though, Super Typhoon Regasa has already wreaked havoc across the region. In Taiwan, at least 14 people were killed and 124 were missing when a mountain barrier lake burst in Hualien County after it received nearly two feet of rain on its east coast. 

The storm also claimed lives and prompted evacuations in the northern Philippines and southern China’s Guangdong province, where some 370,000 residents have been displaced amid widespread closures of schools and businesses.

With the “dirty side” of the storm, which is associated with the most damaging winds, moving in closer to Hong Kong, officials there have urged their residents to prepare themselves and stay inside. Preparations were being made, including an announced closure of all schools on Tuesday and Wednesday, the suspension of non-emergency services at public hospitals, and the deployment of more than 1,000 workforce members to the airport for emergency response provisions.