Super Typhoon Champi: Hong Kong airlines cancel at least 12 Taiwan, Japan flights

Airlines in Hong Kong have cancelled or rescheduled more than a dozen flights to and from Taiwan and Japan due to Super Typhoon Champi, with further disruption expected in the coming days.

Budget carrier HK Express announced it would cancel 10 flights between Hong Kong and Taiwan on Friday, with six serving Taipei and two each serving Taichung and Kaohsiung.

Four other flights serving Taichung and Kaohsiung have been postponed until Saturday. The airline said it was notifying affected passengers by email.

HK Express, Cathay Pacific Airways’ low-cost carrier, said affected passengers could rebook free of charge, with change fees and fare differences waived, provided their new departure dates were within two weeks of their original bookings.

Passengers could also request full refunds for unused flight segments without cancellation charges. All requests must be submitted before the original scheduled departure times.

Hong Kong flag carrier Cathay Pacific has also introduced special ticketing arrangements for passengers travelling to and from Taipei on Friday and Saturday. Rebooking and re-routing charges will be waived for tickets issued on or before Wednesday.

Passengers must make changes before Saturday and complete their journeys by December 31. Any fare or tax differences will remain payable.

The airline said it was closely monitoring the weather and would rebook passengers on the first available service if their flights were cancelled.

Hong Kong Airlines, meanwhile, cancelled two flights between Hong Kong and Okinawa on Thursday – outbound flight HX658 and return service HX659.

The carrier warned that flights between Hong Kong and Taipei could also be delayed or cancelled between Thursday and Saturday, although services on the route were operating normally when it issued the announcement.

It said rebooking, re-routing and refund fees would be waived for passengers with confirmed bookings on the cancelled Okinawa flights.

Greater Bay Airlines said its flights were operating normally but warned of possible changes to services to and from Taipei and Okinawa because of the typhoon.

The airline urged passengers travelling on Friday and Saturday to check their flight status before heading to the airport.

According to the Hong Kong Observatory, Champi was centred about 640km (398 miles) southeast of Taipei at noon on Thursday and was forecast to move northwest at about 14km/h (9mph) towards waters east of Taiwan.

The forecaster said the super typhoon had maximum sustained winds of 210km/h near its centre at 8am.

The Observatory expected Champi, named after the Lao word for the frangipani flower, to move towards waters east of Taiwan on Thursday and Friday before potentially turning north across the East China Sea towards Japan and Korea.

It added that the storm could still skirt the coasts of Taiwan and Zhejiang province.

Despite the storm, Hong Kong was expected to remain generally fine and dry over the next couple of days, with temperatures reaching 32 degrees Celsius (90 Fahrenheit) on both Friday and Saturday.

The Observatory said sinking air associated with Champi’s outer circulation would bring very hot weather to parts of Guangdong later this week. A fresh to strong northeast monsoon was expected to affect the southern China coast early to mid-next week.