Rainstorm creates havoc for Pearl Delta airports
More than 100 arriving and departing flights are cancelled or delayed during afternoon downpour
More than 100 flights departing from and arriving at Guangzhou and Shenzhen were cancelled and almost all others delayed in Saturday’s storm.
China Southern Airlines alone had cancelled 84 scheduled flights as of 3:30pm, of which 60 originated from Guangzhou and the other from Shenzhen, the news portal Southcn.com reported.
The Hong Kong Observatory issued the thunderstorm warning at 4pm. Several China Eastern Airlines flights bound for Guangzhou Baiyun Airport were delayed for up to six hours.
Almost all scheduled landings at Shenzhen Baoan International Airport were delayed, although airlines by early evening still had not updated scheduling and contingency plans for passengers.
A number of passengers took to Weibo to express their dissatisfaction at the delays, posting angry remarks along with photos of themselves waiting at the airport.
One frustrated blogger on Weibo wrote: “13:50 flight delayed until 14:40, then 16:00, then 17:00, then 18:00 and again until 19:45,” tagging China Southern Airlines’ Weibo account in the complaint.
Another Weibo user posted about his relief at being able to reschedule his cancelled flight for later at night.
Southcn.com reported that China Southern Airlines had assisted passengers with ticket refunds for their cancelled flights.
None of the afflicted airlines including Air China, China Eastern Airlines and China Southern Airlines carried the news on their own websites.
On Friday, China Southern Airlines also suffered significant schedule setbacks due to the stormy weather in other parts of the country, with 31 flight cancellations and delays of one hour or more, according to the Information Times.
Several other regions in China have also suffered downpours and flooding over the past week, including Jiangxi (江西), Hubei (湖北) and Anhui (安徽), China National Radio reported.
