After Hong Kong International Airport announced the cancellation of all evening flights yesterday, August 12, 2019, from 6 PM onwards, it was expected that the situation would return to normal and this morning flight operations would resume normally. But while the operations resumed, the demonstrators started to come back at the airport later in the day, today, on August 13, 2019. Is Hong Kong Airport Open? No.
Here is the notice that can be seen on the website of the Hong Kong airport right now.
Flights for which check-in was completed at the time of issuing the notice, and arrival flights that are already flying into Hong Kong and are airborne, the rest of the flights have been cancelled for the rest of the day. Here is Cathay Pacific advising passengers not to arrive at the airport.
The Airport Authority of Hong Kong has advised that all check-in services for departing flights have been suspended.
Passengers are advised not to proceed to the airport. 1/2— Cathay Pacific (@cathaypacific) August 13, 2019
However, unlike yesterday, there is not a blanket ban on flights taking off. Flights will take off with as many passengers who had already checked in before the check-in closed for customers.
Like you can see, some flights are operating but many flights after that time are showing as cancelled on the Hong Kong Airport departures site. You can check the arrivals site here.
As a consequence, the flights of Air India departing out of Hong Kong at 18:05 yesterday departed about 18 hours late. The flight AI315 scheduled to depart on August 13 between Hong Kong and Delhi is cancelled by Air India.
The Ministry of External Affairs has finally issued an advisory to those flying to Hong Kong.
The Cathay Pacific website has been updated as follows at 1645 HKT:
Cathay Pacific and Cathay Dragon have been informed by the Airport Authority in Hong Kong that all check-in has been suspended as a result of the public assembly at Hong Kong International Airport, which is ongoing. There is potential for further flight disruptions at short notice.
Customers are therefore encouraged to postpone non-essential travel from Hong Kong on Tuesday 13 August and Wednesday 14 August and should not proceed to the airport.
Bottomline
If you were supposed to fly to Hong Kong or pass through, take note. The pro-democracy protests, which have been simmering for the past two months, are now at a flashpoint. If you are already in Hong Kong, this will be a confusing situation given you might not know where your bags are if you used the city check-in facility.
Were you planning to be in Hong Kong during this week and are facing issues due to Hong Kong Airport Shut Down?
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