Hong Kong airport to suspend passenger flights for 36 hours as Typhoon Ragasa nears

Hong Kong airport to suspend passenger flights for 36 hours as Typhoon Ragasa nears

Event date: 2025-09-23

Hong Kong International Airport was preparing to suspend all passenger flights for 36 hours as Super Typhoon Ragasa approached the territory, according to the packet’s CNA report. The shutdown window was set to begin on the evening of September 23 and run through the morning of September 25, a move that would effectively pause commercial passenger traffic at one of Asia’s busiest hubs.

The operational impact was already spreading beyond Hong Kong itself. Cathay Pacific said it expected to cancel more than 500 flights, while Scoot confirmed that eight upcoming flights had been scrapped because of adverse weather. Singapore Airlines also said it had cancelled 12 flights to and from Hong Kong, along with two services between Singapore and Shenzhen.

The report said the Asian financial hub was bracing for one of its strongest super typhoons in years. Hong Kong's Observatory planned to raise the city’s typhoon signals as conditions worsened, and authorities warned that the weather would deteriorate rapidly, with gale-force to storm-force winds expected to hit the densely populated city. Offshore and on high ground, wind speeds were forecast to reach hurricane force.

The closures and cancellations came as residents began stockpiling daily necessities. Reuters witnesses saw long queues at supermarkets and prices for some fresh produce rising sharply in markets. That detail matters because typhoon preparations in Hong Kong often include a scramble for basic goods, and the report suggested the public was already responding to the coming storm in that familiar way.

The packet also noted that the airport closure had not yet been formally announced by Airport Authority Hong Kong, although Qantas said it had been told the airport would be closed during the stated period. That left some operational details to be confirmed, but the airline statements gave a clear picture of the expected disruption.

The wider regional effects extended to the Philippines, where the government suspended work and classes across Metro Manila and large parts of the country as Ragasa moved toward northern Luzon. The report showed how quickly a powerful storm can reshape aviation schedules and public life across multiple countries in East and Southeast Asia.

For travellers, the immediate takeaway was simple: the storm was already forcing airlines to cancel flights, and more cancellations were likely as the weather system moved closer. For Hong Kong, the larger consequence was a temporary shutdown of passenger aviation in anticipation of extreme winds and dangerous conditions.