About 2,000 passengers were stranded overnight at Hong Kong International Airport as Typhoon Noul battered the city, with some dismayed by their disrupted journeys while others complained about hotel room rates that had risen from HK$2,000 (8,600 baht) to HK$3,000 per night.
In the airport’s departure hall, almost all the chairs were occupied on Sunday morning, with some passengers sitting on luggage trolleys. Many slept on benches, while others anxiously checked the status of flights on their phones.
Yeung Tat-wing, the Airport Authority’s director of service delivery, said the airport was expected to handle a total of 675 flights on Sunday, while 350 had been cancelled.
At least 29 departure and 20 arrival flights were cancelled on Saturday.
Yeung said most flights would resume on Sunday afternoon and all three runways would operate overnight if necessary.
Airport Express services resumed at 9am (8am Thailand time) on Sunday, and Yeung said he hoped all airport operations would return to normal by Monday morning.
While many flights were grounded over the weekend, a check on the authority’s website showed that 70 flights landed in Hong Kong between 10.10pm on Saturday and 12.40pm on Sunday, when the Observatory issued the No 8 and No 9 storm signals.
Yeung said that around 2,000 people had stayed overnight at the airport, most of them departing passengers.
Tong, a traveller from Hangzhou, arrived in Hong Kong at 10pm on Saturday night with his family. They were en route to Malaysia but their connecting flight was cancelled because of the typhoon and rescheduled for Monday morning.
He acknowledged that the disruption was caused by “uncontrollable factors” but said the situation was troublesome, as many hotels were packed and that some room rates had gone up from HK$2,000 to as high as HK$3,000 per night.
Tong added that adults could manage the discomfort but the situation was especially tiring with a young child in tow.
Bernard Duyao, a Filipino tourist heading to Manila after a holiday in Hong Kong, travelled to the airport on a tour bus at 4pm on Sunday. But his flight was cancelled and he had to stay in Hong Kong for another two nights.
“It’s disappointing, but it’s up to nature – we can’t do anything about this,” he said, adding that he planned to return to the city centre and check into a hotel once the weather cleared.
Duyao suggested that the airport install longer lounge chairs for passengers, such as those available at airports in Dubai and Turkey.
“I’m very happy that we landed safely, and now I’m happy to have a vacation with my family here in Hong Kong,” he said.
Cathay Pacific said that flight services would gradually resume in the late afternoon, after more than 200 flights had been cancelled earlier.
Hong Kong Airlines said most of its flights would continue to operate on Sunday, including around 70 flights that had been scheduled from morning to noon.
Hong Kong Express also said around 118 of its flights would operate throughout the day, with all services expected to return to normal by Monday morning.