Severe Typhoon Champi forced the cancellation of more than 70 flights between Hong Kong International Airport and Taiwan on Friday 23 October 2026, with further cuts on some Japan services as the storm closed in on Taiwan.
Super Typhoon Champi (薔琵) has been one of the stronger Pacific storms of 2026, but it is not bringing a Hong Kong signal ladder to Chek Lap Kok. As of late evening Thursday 22 October, the Hong Kong Observatory had Champi centred about 1.120 km east of Hong Kong (Severe Typhoon, ~175 km/h near centre at 20:00 HKT), forecast to move toward the seas east of Taiwan. Locally the weather is fine, hot and very dry — no Tropical Cyclone Warning Signal No. 1 or above is in force for Hong Kong.
So, Cathay Pacific has pushed the cancellation of its Hong Kong–Dubai and Hong Kong–Riyadh passenger flights out again, this time through 31 January 2027. That is a fair bit longer than the previous targets that were floating around for late October and November, and it is another reminder that this Middle East pause is not a short blip.
Last month Macau opened up for travellers from the Chinese province of Guangdong to enter Macau without the mandatory 14 days quarantine as they had to undergo until then.
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Last week we saw the beginning of the 3rd wave of COVID-outbreak in Hong Kong, and the government reacted directly by imposing more restrictions again, this time also targeting flight crews who previously were exempted from testing on arrival to Hong Kong.
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As Cathay is starting to slowly resume flights, I thought it would be a good idea to also post an update on travel restrictions around the world for those lucky enough to be able to travel.
As restrictions change all the time, it is really hard to know what is the real, latest updates, but I would recommend to go to Cathays Website and see what they have updated for all their destinations.
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It was announced a couple of days ago that starting June 1st, Hong Kong Airport will again open up for transit passengers. While the restrictions were not initially published, we now know what some of those will be.
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As I wrote about on March 25, Hong Kong was going to ban all tourists, including transit passengers, for 2 weeks.
Now South China Morning post is reporting that this ban has been extended indefinitely, as most of the recent COVID19 cases are imported cases.
Koh Samui mayor Ramnet Jaikwang declared today that the island is imposing a 3 week entry ban for the Island, effective until the end of April 2020.
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Effective midnight last night (Friday April 03 2020) and for 72 hours Thailand has announced that they are suspending all incoming passenger flights.
Anyone who arrives on a flight that took off before the ban came into force will be allowed to arrive, but will be quarantined for 14 days after arriving in Thailand.
They are also reporting that Phuket Airport will close for 3 weeks, from April 10 to April 30, but his is not yet confirmed.
