[Michael Cleary]

I was in Taiwan two years ago when another Typhoon went through Hong Kong.

On that day, Taipei got a heap of diversions, including Cathay flights from both Melbourne and Sydney.

A friend of mine was on the Melbourne flight (bound for JFK via HKG), and told me later that a couple of hours out of HKG it was announced that they would be diverting to Manila, which they initially headed towards, only to be told again that they were now heading for Taipei instead. (I dare say that fresh crews would more likely be available in Taipei, given that Cathay have so many flights there).

They landed at Taipei, only to find the place full as they were just one of about 20 aircraft that had diverted there, and as such had to just sit tight at a remote stand for a couple of hours after which they were eventually disembarked and taken into the terminal, and a few hours later, reboarded and ended up in HKG about 8 hours late. Of course, the JFK connection was missed, so a 24 hour delay in HKG ensued, with Cathay paying for the hotel.

The irony was, that the passenger sitting next to my friend was actually heading to TPE (maybe not the only one either). Apparently he asked if he could exit the flight there, to be told no. I guess there was nothing to stop him from heading through Immigration etc, but what would have happened with his baggage is another issue.

As mentioned earlier, the knock-on effect on Cathay in particular, but others too, would be enormous.