Hong Kong - Typhoon USAGI
 

Looks like Hong Kong is going to get a direct hit from this Typhoon which has already belted southern Taiwan.

Cathay have advised that they are shutting down HKG Operations from 18:00 today.

CX110 has departed from Sydney and has an ETA of 15:05 in HKG.
CX162 has just departed, ETA in HKG at 17:08
Be interesting to see if they actually get there though - no doubt carrying extra fuel.
QF127 is showing as delayed - no doubt they are considering options
The 2 later Cathay flights from SYD today have been cancelled.

Don't expect any Cathay arrivals in Australia tomorrow morning.

QF127 departure now delayed until 08:50 Monday.

On the ground in Sydney tonight we have 2 Cathay A330's, Virgin Atlantic A340, China Southern A330, all affected by the Typhoon. There's an Emirates B777F, UPS and FedEx MD-11F freighters here too, although I don't know if they're regular overnighters or more victims of Usagi.

I can only imagine the chaos this one storm is causing worldwide!

CX latest is they're expecting to recommence services at midday HKG time, i.e. 2pm AEST (but still expecting delays and cancellations as operations return to normal).

http://www.cathaypacific.com/cx/en_A...tes/usagi.html

One of the flights to/from SYD will be operated by a 747-400. Haven't seen that for a while here.

I'd wondered if they'd upgauge any Aussie services. Was thinking a 777-300ER would be kinda cool but 747 is something different at least!

B-HKE did CX138/139 tonight.

Alex.

I was in Taiwan two years ago when another Typhoon went through Hong Kong.

On that day, Taipei got a heap of diversions, including Cathay flights from both Melbourne and Sydney.

A friend of mine was on the Melbourne flight (bound for JFK via HKG), and told me later that a couple of hours out of HKG it was announced that they would be diverting to Manila, which they initially headed towards, only to be told again that they were now heading for Taipei instead. (I dare say that fresh crews would more likely be available in Taipei, given that Cathay have so many flights there).

They landed at Taipei, only to find the place full as they were just one of about 20 aircraft that had diverted there, and as such had to just sit tight at a remote stand for a couple of hours after which they were eventually disembarked and taken into the terminal, and a few hours later, reboarded and ended up in HKG about 8 hours late. Of course, the JFK connection was missed, so a 24 hour delay in HKG ensued, with Cathay paying for the hotel.

The irony was, that the passenger sitting next to my friend was actually heading to TPE (maybe not the only one either). Apparently he asked if he could exit the flight there, to be told no. I guess there was nothing to stop him from heading through Immigration etc, but what would have happened with his baggage is another issue.

As mentioned earlier, the knock-on effect on Cathay in particular, but others too, would be enormous.