The air traffic controller issued a red alert, the highest of its four-tier alert system, for both airports from noon through 2pm yesterday because of heavy rains accompanied by lightning and thunder hitting the city in the morning, according to the Air Traffic Management Bureau, which lowered it to a yellow alert, the second tier, after 3pm.
The controller lifted the alerts for both airports after 5:30pm when weather conditions improved.
However, flight delays continued at both airports through 8pm, especially Hongqiao, as a large accumulation of flights had to take off or land gradually, the airport authority said.
The convective weather not only impacted the Hongqiao and Pudong airports, but also the routes of many flights, which caused massive delays, an official with the air traffic management bureau said.
It had predicted the takeoff and landing capacity of Shanghai's two airports would be reduced by 30 percent yesterday morning, but weather conditions worsened around noon.
The Hongqiao airport was the worst hit as 242 flights had been canceled as of 4pm and most other flights were delayed in the afternoon. Over 50 flights were delayed for over 4 hours, while 20 flights had been diverted to other airports by 4pm, including three to the Pudong airport, the authority said.
Almost all China Eastern Airlines flights to Beijing, Guangzhou and Shenzhen after 2pm had been canceled due to weather conditions, said Wang Xiaolin, a customer service official with the airline at the Hongqiao airport's T2 building.
"Passengers are advised to transfer to flights scheduled for tomorrow to avoid being stranded at the airport," she said.
"There were no flights taking off or landing between 9am and 11am at the Hongqiao airport due to the bad weather," said Chen Zhe, a customer service representative with the local carrier Juneyao Airlines.
Long queues of passengers were waiting in front of the airlines' service counters to arrange transfers to other flights or obtain refunds. Others gathered in front of the check-in counters to wait for the reopening of check-in services for their long-delayed flights.
"I have to cancel a business meeting tomorrow in Beijing because my flight scheduled for this afternoon has been cancelled," a China Eastern Airlines passenger revealed. The man, a Hungarian named Gabor, said he was unable to buy a ticket for the Beijing-Shanghai High Speed Railway because "everyone wants to change to the train."
Tickets for the railway, which takes around 5 hours to travel from Shanghai to Beijing, were sold out by 2pm.
A passenger surnamed Lu who planned to fly home to Chongqing Municipality with his mother after a vacation, said there were almost no flights to the city from Shanghai yesterday. They planned to stay at the airport for the night and take a train back home this morning. "We don't have faith in airlines anymore," he said.
An Air China passenger surnamed Qian said he boarded Flight CA1947 to Chengdu in southwest Sichuan Province at 6:50am and was told the plane would take off soon. However, he and the other passengers were asked to get off the plane after 9am because the flight would be delayed until 3pm due to the worsening weather. The crew asked them to wait in the terminal building. The plane, which was scheduled to land in Chengdu around 10am, took off at 3:45pm.
China Southern Airlines dispatched a dozen buses to take passengers whose flights were delayed for over four hours to hotels to rest, said Xu Zhenghua, an official with the airline's Shanghai branch.
Meanwhile, the city is likely to see more showers this week, according to forecasters.
The plum rain belt, which is moving southward, brought 45 millimeters of rain to Chongming County yesterday.
Occasional showers are likely today and another a series of rainy days is expected from tomorrow as the mercury begins to fall back into the 20s.
Source: Shanghai Daily by Yang Jian and Ke Jiayun
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