All flights scheduled for the evening of Monday, August 12, have been cancelled at Hong Kong Airport. The reason for this is the escalation of anti-government protests that have been taking place in Hong Kong throughout the summer, reports Travel.ru.
Almost all flights have been cancelled since 18.Monday (with the exception of certain flights for which check-in had already closed when the airport closure was decided) and until Tuesday, August 13, at 7:00 a.m. The airport will continue to accommodate flights already departing. However, since return flights have been cancelled, foreign airlines may decide to land their aircraft elsewhere.
Aeroflot's flight to Moscow on August 12th is unaffected by the situation—it departed that morning. The evening flight from Moscow to Hong Kong is also currently on schedule (due to arrive in Hong Kong at 9:45 a.m. Tuesday), but could theoretically be delayed if events unfold.
The Siberia Airlines (S7 Airlines) flight from Hong Kong to Vladivostok, scheduled for Monday at 5:55 p.m., will also likely be cancelled. The next Siberia Airlines 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 almost the entire summer. The spur was an attempt to pass an extradition bill that would allow criminal suspects to be extradited to other jurisdictions, including mainland China. Fearing a further erosion of Hong Kong's autonomy, protesters are demanding the bill's repeal, but so far have only succeeded in freezing its consideration. Protests sometimes draw 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 remained unaffected. However, starting late last week, protesters began appearing at the airport, initially in small groups that did not interfere with airport operations. The goal of these groups was to draw foreigners' attention to the protests. On August 12, the airport suddenly became the main site of events after protests downtown resulted in several injuries. It is unclear whether the cancellation of flights indicates the authorities are attempting 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. While they don't yet recommend avoiding travel altogether, they do recommend avoiding demonstration sites and researching in advance the location and timing of protests planned for a given day.
Source: travel.ru