Travellers passing through Hong Kong International Airport (HKIA) on 25 January faced a fresh wave of disruption as an Asia-wide operational crunch caused 171 delays and four cancellations in the city, according to live data compiled by FlightAware and reported by Travel & Tour World.
Across the region, airports in Tokyo (Haneda), Bangkok (Suvarnabhumi), Kuala Lumpur, Singapore (Changi), Beijing and Zhengzhou logged the highest disruption volumes, with a combined 1,540 delayed and 79 cancelled flights. Cathay Pacific led both delays (55) and cancellations (4) at HKIA, while other carriers such as All Nippon Airways, Japan Airlines, Air China and Scoot struggled with rolling knock-on effects.
Amid such turbulence, being certain your travel documents won’t be the next hurdle can be a real stress-saver. VisaHQ’s Hong Kong portal (https://www.visahq.com/hong-kong/) lets passengers instantly check visa requirements, submit applications online and request expedited processing for multiple Asian destinations, giving travellers and mobility managers a quick, reliable back-up when schedules start sliding.
![System-wide flight delays ripple across Asia, hitting 175 departures at Hong Kong airport]()
Aviation analysts say the squeeze was driven by a cocktail of winter weather over north-east Asia, crew rostering gaps after the year-end peak and tight turnaround buffers on short-haul routes. Because most airlines chose to delay rather than cancel, schedules became increasingly out of sync as the day wore on, creating missed connections for business travellers and pushing immigration and baggage-claim peaks into late evening.
For mobility teams the takeaway is to build extra slack into itineraries through the high-season shoulder, especially for connections in Tokyo and Bangkok that feed Hong Kong-bound traffic. Corporates holding “flex” tickets on Cathay Pacific should note that the carrier’s change-fee waivers linked to the U.S. winter storm (issued 22 Jan) do not automatically cover intra-Asia delays; proactive rebooking may still be required.
Airport Authority Hong Kong said it opened additional immigration counters during the late-afternoon surge and diverted some flights to remote stands to free up gates for incoming long-haul services.
Across the region, airports in Tokyo (Haneda), Bangkok (Suvarnabhumi), Kuala Lumpur, Singapore (Changi), Beijing and Zhengzhou logged the highest disruption volumes, with a combined 1,540 delayed and 79 cancelled flights. Cathay Pacific led both delays (55) and cancellations (4) at HKIA, while other carriers such as All Nippon Airways, Japan Airlines, Air China and Scoot struggled with rolling knock-on effects.
Amid such turbulence, being certain your travel documents won’t be the next hurdle can be a real stress-saver. VisaHQ’s Hong Kong portal (https://www.visahq.com/hong-kong/) lets passengers instantly check visa requirements, submit applications online and request expedited processing for multiple Asian destinations, giving travellers and mobility managers a quick, reliable back-up when schedules start sliding.
Aviation analysts say the squeeze was driven by a cocktail of winter weather over north-east Asia, crew rostering gaps after the year-end peak and tight turnaround buffers on short-haul routes. Because most airlines chose to delay rather than cancel, schedules became increasingly out of sync as the day wore on, creating missed connections for business travellers and pushing immigration and baggage-claim peaks into late evening.
For mobility teams the takeaway is to build extra slack into itineraries through the high-season shoulder, especially for connections in Tokyo and Bangkok that feed Hong Kong-bound traffic. Corporates holding “flex” tickets on Cathay Pacific should note that the carrier’s change-fee waivers linked to the U.S. winter storm (issued 22 Jan) do not automatically cover intra-Asia delays; proactive rebooking may still be required.
Airport Authority Hong Kong said it opened additional immigration counters during the late-afternoon surge and diverted some flights to remote stands to free up gates for incoming long-haul services.
