KUALA LUMPUR - AirAsia cancelled 14 East Asia flight sectors scheduled for July 10 as Typhoon Bavi approached waters east of Taiwan.
The airline published the cancellations in a July 9 travel advisory, which was updated at 9:30 p.m. GMT+8. The affected services cover routes through Taipei and Kaohsiung, including connections to Osaka, Fukuoka and Okinawa.
Six Malaysia-linked flight numbers account for 12 of the cancelled sectors. AK170 and AK171 connect Kuala Lumpur with Kaohsiung and Osaka. AK1510 and AK1511 operate between Kota Kinabalu, Taipei and Fukuoka. AirAsia X services D7378 and D7379 connect Kuala Lumpur, Taipei and Osaka.
Thai AirAsia cancelled two additional sectors. The Bangkok–Taipei portion of FD230 remains scheduled to operate normally, but the Taipei–Okinawa sector is cancelled. FD231 is cancelled between Okinawa and Taipei, although its Taipei–Bangkok sector remains listed as normal.
AirAsia said it would contact affected passengers using the email addresses and telephone numbers registered with their bookings. Travellers will receive service-recovery options based on their affected itineraries, although the advisory does not specify the options available for each route.
“The safety and wellbeing of our guests remain our top priority,” the airline said.
The Hong Kong Observatory classified Bavi as a severe typhoon at 8 a.m. on July 10. The storm was about 1,390 kilometres east of Hong Kong, with maximum sustained winds near its centre of approximately 175 kilometres per hour.
The observatory forecast Bavi to move across waters east of Taiwan before approaching southern Zhejiang and northern Fujian in China. Its projected track placed the storm east of Taiwan on July 11 before an expected weakening near China’s coast on July 12.
Reuters reported on July 10 that Taiwan had evacuated more than 1,000 people, mainly from mountainous communities along its eastern coast, as forecasts warned that some areas could receive up to one metre of rain. The government also placed 28,922 military personnel on standby for flood prevention, rescue and relief operations.
In Japan, Japan Airlines and All Nippon Airways cancelled 84 flights scheduled for July 10, affecting about 9,400 passengers as Bavi approached the southwestern islands.
