What Hong Kong Airport Disruption Means for Your Travel Plans

(Bloomberg) -- Flights to and from Hong Kong were disrupted for a second day after renewed protests grounded hundreds of services.

The airport, Asia’s busiest for international traffic and a key transit point for European trips, resumed operations early Tuesday after Monday’s shutdown, before services were disrupted again when hundreds of black-shirted protesters returned to departure halls.

Check-in for outbound flights was halted, though some long-haul operators said they’d maintain inbound services as arrival areas are less affected. Passengers were told to confirm their journeys with airlines before going to the airport.

Stranded, Squeezed and Seething as Hong Kong Airport Shuts Down

Here’s how carriers are responding to the latest upheaval:

Cathay Pacific

• The Hong Kong airline and its Cathay Dragon unit suspended all check-ins and encouraged passengers to postpone non-essential travel from Hong Kong on Tuesday and Wednesday.
• Earlier, it canceled more than 200 incoming and outgoing flights amid rescheduling issues even as the airport reopened. Almost all the affected services were in Asia, though some flights to and from the U.S. and Europe were scrubbed.

Qantas Airways

• Even before the return of protesters the Australian airline canceled three flights to Hong Kong that were scheduled to leave from Brisbane, Melbourne and Sydney on Tuesday.

Deutsche Lufthansa

• Europe’s largest airline is looking at canceling Tuesday evening’s flights to Hong Kong from Frankfurt and Munich. The departures aren’t until around 11 p.m. and the carrier plans to reach a decision by about 6 p.m. Lufthansa scrapped the services Monday even after operators continued long-haul services.

Air France

• A Tuesday service from Paris Charles de Gaulle arrived unhindered in Hong Kong but a spokesman said the return flight would be postponed amid the renewed protests.

KLM

• Sister company KLM said it was maintaining services, with a flight to Amsterdam having already departed Hong Kong before the protests sparked off again and an outbound service due to depart the Dutch city for Asia at 5 p.m.

Virgin Atlantic Airways

• The British carrier is still hoping to operate its departure from Hong Kong to London at 11:55 p.m. local time and said its service from the U.K. will leave as scheduled at 9:50 p.m. It avoided cancellations Monday after a jet that broke down in Hong Kong Sunday was able to make an unscheduled flight to Britain when the airport reopened.

Hong Kong Airlines

• More than 20 departures flights into Hong Kong were canceled Tuesday from cities all over Asia including Bangkok, Beijing and Manila, many of them return services for operations that were scrapped Monday.

Air China

• The state-owned airline said it canceled a dozen flights in and out of Hong Kong.

American Airlines

• American Airlines Group Inc.’s Tuesday flights from Hong Kong to Dallas and Los Angeles departed as scheduled, a spokeswoman said. A flight from Los Angeles to Hong Kong was canceled.

United Airlines

• United, the U.S. airline with the most service to China, said its Hong Kong flights would operate as normal on Tuesday. The company issued a travel waiver for customers allowing changes to Hong Kong flights scheduled Aug. 12-15.

--With assistance from Ania Nussbaum, Mary Schlangenstein, Justin Bachman, Jack Pitcher, Layan Odeh and Tony Robinson.

To contact the reporters on this story: Angus Whitley in Sydney at awhitley1@bloomberg.net;Christopher Jasper in London at cjasper@bloomberg.net;William Wilkes in Frankfurt at wwilkes1@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Anthony Palazzo at apalazzo@bloomberg.net, Brendan Case, John Bowker

©2019 Bloomberg L.P.