Passengers rush to rearrange flights at Hong Kong airport as Ragasa approaches

Travellers have started preparing for the onslaught of Super Typhoon Ragasa, with some arriving at Hong Kong International Airport up to two days early on Monday to reschedule flights as all local airlines announced cancellations of most departures starting Tuesday evening.

At least 700 flights are set to be cancelled by Hong Kong’s four airlines alone, due to Ragasa – a Filipino word meaning rapid or fast action.

Hannah Li and Kirill Bordashevich, both in their 20s, were among hundreds of passengers at the Cathay Pacific Airways counter at the airport on Monday, trying to rearrange their flight back to Amsterdam scheduled for Wednesday.

“They’re kicking us back and forth, that’s why we actually came all the way to the airport early to fix it,” Li, a designer, told the Post.

She explained that since their tickets were bought through the third-party platform Booking.com, there was confusion over how to make rearrangements.

“We got a notification from Cathay that we could make changes to our flight, but the third-party agency says they had not heard anything,” she said.