All flights scheduled for the evening hours of Monday, August 12, have been cancelled at Hong Kong Airport. The reason for this was the escalation of anti-government protests that have been taking place in Hong Kong all summer, reports our own correspondent Travel.ru.
Almost all flights have been cancelled since 18.00 Monday (with the exception of certain flights for which check-in had already ended by the time the decision to close the airport was made) and until 7.00 Tuesday, August 13. The airport will continue to accept flights that have already departed in its direction. However, since return flights have been cancelled, foreign airlines may decide to land their planes elsewhere.
Aeroflot's flight to Moscow on August 12 is not affected by what is happening - it managed to leave in the morning. The evening flight from Moscow to Hong Kong is also supposed to be on schedule (it should arrive in Hong Kong at 9.45 on Tuesday), but theoretically it could be postponed in the event of unfavorable developments.
The S7 Airlines flight from Hong Kong to Vladivostok scheduled for Monday at 17:55 will also likely depart. The next S7 flight to Hong Kong (from Irkutsk) is scheduled for August 14.
Protests and clashes with police have been occurring in Hong Kong with varying intensity for most of the summer. The reason was an attempt to pass an extradition law that would allow criminal suspects to be extradited to other jurisdictions, including mainland China. Protesters, fearing further erosion of Hong Kong's autonomy, are demanding the bill be repealed, but so far have only succeeded in freezing its consideration. Protests sometimes gather up to a million participants.
Until now, the events had had little impact on tourists – they simply avoided the demonstration sites, and the main attractions were not affected by the protests. However, since the end of last week, protesters have appeared at the airport – initially in small groups that did not interfere with the functioning of the airport. The aim of these groups was to draw the attention of foreigners to the protests. On August 12, the airport suddenly became the main scene of events – after protests in the center led to injuries to several participants. It is not known whether the cancellation of flights means that the authorities are trying to restore order at the airport by force. It is also unclear whether traffic on the new bridge from Hong Kong to Macau and Zhuhai, which begins near the airport, has been affected.
A number of countries have been issuing travel warnings to Hong Kong for some time now. They do not yet advise against traveling there at all, but they do recommend avoiding demonstration sites and finding out in advance where and when protests are planned on a particular day.
Source: travel.ru