First, CX canceled flights based on Thursday (8/6) forecast, which indicated that typhoon would hit Taiwan on Friday (8/7) daytime. Therefore, CX decided to ferry four planes back to Hong Kong on Thursday night. That's why CX463/407/403/469 had to be canceled on Friday morning. Also, CX rerouted CX530/531/564/565/510/511/420/421 to non-stop fligts. This decision was actually reasonable because CX has to make sure its operation at Hong Kong wouldn't be affected by planes stuck at Taipei. This situation actually happened many times when CX's planes were stuck at Taipei and caused HKG a big mess.

However, this typhoon actually slowed down on Thursday night/Friday morning. The fact was CX did mention cancelation for whole Friday flights on Thursday night through its website and urged passengers not go to airport.

CI and BR can made normal operation because first, TPE is their homebase, and second, they had to fly their planes out of Taiwan to brace for typhoon. CI602/904/605 and other regional flights actually had to wait until Friday midnight or Saturday morning to fly back to TPE. CI/BR also delayed their long-haul flights to Friday/Saturday midnight because the weather forcast on Thursday indicated that typhoon would be gone by then. BUT, the real situation was those long-haul flights and returning flights were seriously affected by typhoon on Friday/Saturday midnight.

Moreover, CX/CI/BR and other carriers all resumed normal operation from Saturday (8/8) morning although typhoon was still in Taiwan. In fact, the weather wasn't bad on Saturday morning according to my pilot friend.

CI for sure crashed two airplanes at HKG during typhoon weather. The first one (1993) no doubt was pilots error. The second one (1999) was also contributed by pilot error, concluded by Hong Kong CAD final report, although both NTSB and ASC had different opinions about that. Both accidents indicated that the bad weather caused pilots lots of pressures and affected pilots' flying skills. Last September, CI had a really messy operation during typhoon Jangmi hitting Taiwan. CI didn't cancel flights and caused itself a big trouble. Although some returning flights made it back to Taipei, wind was so strong that jet bridge and cargo door couldn't operate. Most returning flights diverted to HKG causing big passengers dramas on the planes. Some pilots were even over their duty time and flights had to be canceled. I remember CI resumed normal operation after two or three days. CI's pilots actually complained a lot about company not cancel flights.

Nowaday typhoon is more unpredictable than before (Take a look for the disaster this time). For CX's perspective, they don't really want to risk planes stuck at Taipei affecting their whole operation at Hong Kong. This is the most important issue CX concerns.