Flights resume as Mangkhut moves on after battering Hong Kong

Singapore

CATHAY Pacific Airways Ltd and some other airlines resumed services to Hong Kong, a city that was battered over the weekend by a powerful typhoon, forcing the cancellation of almost 900 flights.

The city's flag carrier reported on its website "a gradual return to scheduled flight operations" starting from Monday morning. The Hong Kong International Airport said in a Twitter post on Sunday that passengers should proceed to the terminals only when their seats and flight time have been confirmed.

"Service resumption will likely be very slow, and still subject to weather conditions, with continued delays and some cancellations," Cathay cautioned passengers. The carrier scrapped more than 400 flights over the weekend, while Cathay Dragon and Hong Kong Airlines grounded their fleets.

Hong Kong is limping back to normalcy as the Hong Kong Observatory lowered its rating to a Strong Wind Signal No 3 on Typhoon Mangkhut. The storm left a trail of destruction in the Philippines before heading towards the Pearl River delta in south-eastern China, where Hong Kong is located.

Some flights at the airport in Guangzhou, the capital of Guangdong, also resumed on Monday, according to the airport's website.

Although Hong Kong escaped the brunt, media reports showed images of apartment building windows being blown out, trees being uprooted, scaffoldings collapsing and a crane falling off a building at a construction site. Storm surges raised sea levels by as much as four metres higher than usual in Tsim Sha Tsui, the South China Morning Post reported. BLOOMBERG