By Wynna Wong

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Travellers have started preparing for the onslaught of Super Typhoon Ragasa, with some arriving at Hong Kong International Airport up to two days early on Monday to reschedule flights as all local airlines announced cancellations of most departures starting Tuesday evening.
At least 700 flights are set to be cancelled by Hong Kong’s four airlines alone, due to Ragasa – a Filipino word meaning rapid or fast action.
Hannah Li and Kirill Bordashevich, both in their 20s, were among hundreds of passengers at the Cathay Pacific Airways counter at the airport on Monday, trying to rearrange their flight back to Amsterdam scheduled for Wednesday.
“They’re kicking us back and forth, that’s why we actually came all the way to the airport early to fix it,” Li, a designer, told the Post.
She explained that since their tickets were bought through the third-party platform Booking.com, there was confusion over how to make rearrangements.
“We got a notification from Cathay that we could make changes to our flight, but the third-party agency says they had not heard anything,” she said.
Bordashevich, who works in the financial sector, described the situation as “unbelievable” and “a mess.” They eventually decided to cancel their flight and book with a new airline that would take them on a route to avoid the typhoon, but the trip would be longer and their travel would start days earlier.
“It can’t be helped, we have no more days off left, so we need to get back,” Li said.
Keri Lui, Cathay’s head of Hong Kong International Airport, said all flights to and from the city, about 500, would be suspended from 6pm on Tuesday until Thursday, with operations gradually resuming afterwards.
Budget airline HK Express will adjust its flight schedule from September 23 to 25, resulting in more than 100 cancellations, while four flights scheduled for Tuesday will depart earlier.
Among those at the airport was Venus Unida, whose teenage son was travelling to Manila.
Unida, in her 40s, expressed concern about the flight departing on Monday as Ragasa crossed the Luzon Strait, but said she would proceed with the trip, as the airline had not informed her of any changes.
“I think so, and I sure hope so,” she said when asked whether her flight was scheduled to take off on time.

She added that she was prepared for her son to stay at the airport overnight if necessary.
Colleagues Eunice Tong and Kari Tse, flying to Dubai on a business trip, were unfazed.
“We were never worried, not one bit,” Tong said. “But we know we are very lucky that the flight happened to be booked right in between two typhoons.”
The Airport Authority said on Monday the facility would continue operating throughout the typhoon but warned that many flights would be affected starting at 6pm on Tuesday.
Hong Kong Airlines will cancel about 90 flights, and Greater Bay Airlines will also see cancellations or delays for nearly all its flights.
The airlines said special arrangements had been made for passengers to rearrange their flights flexibly, free of charge or apply for refunds.
Yeung Tat-wing, director of service delivery at the authority, said all airport employees, including those from the Airport Authority, the Civil Aviation Department, various government departments and airlines, would remain on duty during the storm.