TRAVEL-WEATHER: HONGKONG- Airlines cancel flights, ferries halt services as Super Typhoon Mangkhut heads to Hong Kong and China

HONG KONG (BLOOMBERG, XINHUA) – Airlines across the region cancelled more than 100 flights on Saturday (Sept 15) as Super Typhoon Mangkhut slammed into the Philippines and was set to disrupt travel from Hong Kong to Japan.

Cathay Pacific Airways said in a statement it is cancelling all flights in and out of Hong Kong on Sunday beginning at 2.30am, and wouldn’t resume operations until 4am the following day.

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AirAsia Group had cancelled at least 22 flights as of Saturday morning, upsetting travellers from Manila to Shenzhen and Macau, according to a Facebook post.

Philippines Airlines scrapped 41 Saturday flights, including those to Hangzhou and Tokyo, it said on Facebook.

It will almost certainly get worse.

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Mangkhut, which is being called the world’s most powerful storm this year, ripped into the northern Philippines on Saturday as a Category 5 storm, bringing winds of up to 269kmh.

In southern China, ferry services in Qiongzhou Strait have been halted on Saturday morning as Mangkhut is approaching the provinces of Hainan and Guangdong, the local authorities said.

Mangkhut is expected to land in an area between western Guangdong and eastern Hainan on Sunday night, packing strong gales and bringing heavy downpours.

According to China’s National Meteorological Centre, Mangkhut was moving north-westward at a speed of 26kmh at 8am, about 1,000km away from the city of Yangjiang, Guangdong province.

The provincial maritime administration has dispatched helicopters and tugboats to transfer 3,238 offshore platform workers and ordered 6,266 ships to take precautions against the typhoon.