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Natural disasters
Hong KongTransport

Stranded in Japan as typhoon and earthquake strike days apart, Hongkongers scramble to find flights home

Airlines announce additional flights and bigger planes as travellers in some cases consider routes exceeding 20 hours total

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Passengers stranded at Kansai International Airport outside Osaka, Japan. Photo: EPA-EFE
Jane Zhang,Ng Kang-chungandDanny Mok

Hongkongers stranded in disaster-hit areas of Japan are scrambling for air tickets home, spending days securing seats and finding alternative routes that in some cases exceed 20 hours.

Airlines on Friday announced additional flights and bigger planes to cope with the high demand from hundreds of Hongkongers stranded this week after Typhoon Jebi battered southwest Japan and a magnitude 6.7 earthquake rattled the nation’s northernmost main island of Hokkaido. At last count, the quake killed at least 18 people, while the storm claimed at least 11 lives.
Overseas flights from Kansai International Airport, outside Osaka, have been disrupted since Tuesday. New Chitose Airport in Sapporo, Hokkaido, is set to resume overseas flights on Saturday after two days of suspension.
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While domestic flights at Kansai resumed on Friday, it was unknown when the airport would resume serving international destinations.

All four of the remaining tour groups from Hong Kong stranded in Osaka had returned home, but five tour groups with about 150 Hongkongers due to fly back on Thursday and Friday remained in Sapporo, according to Alice Chan Cheung Lok-yee, executive director of the Travel Industry Council.

Chan said on Friday an additional eight tour groups comprising about 220 people were supposed to return from Hokkaido on Saturday and Sunday.

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