Typhoon Nida battered Hong Kong on Tuesday morning, disrupting hundreds of flights and causing train and ferry cancellations, with low-lying areas put on flood alert. Nida, the first major typhoon of the season, has now been downgraded to a severe tropical storm and is moving inland. A limited number of flights arrived at Hong Kong Airport, with the first departures expected during Tuesday afternoon. Hong Kong carriers Cathay Pacific and Dragonair said flights had been cancelled during the storm, but were hoping to have limited departures from 14:00 (2 pm).<br/>
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China’s airlines, rushing to pare dollar debt as a weakening yuan adds to servicing costs, are selling local-currency bonds at the fastest pace since 2009 to trim their exposure to the greenback. The nation’s carriers, led by China Eastern Airlines Corp., have sold a combined 106.3b yuan ($16b) of bonds in the first seven months of this year, a fivefold increase from the same period last year. An unexpected devaluation of the yuan last year led to an 18-fold surge in foreign-exchange losses to about $2.5b for the top three operators, as dollar debt accounted for as much as 80% of their total, the data show. Cutting exposure to dollar debt particularly benefits import-heavy industries like airlines, which borrow in the US currency to pay for aircraft, said Richard Zhang, an analyst at First Shanghai Securities. While the Chinese currency’s depreciation means carriers will have to raise more yuan to pay off the same amount in dollars, the extra cost incurred will still be less than the loss to be booked if they maintain foreign debt, according to UOB Kay Hian Holdings. “They are rapidly deleveraging the U.S.-dollar debt exposure,” said K. Ajith, an analyst at UOB Kay Hian Holdings in Singapore. “More bond sales are expected this year as the market expects yuan depreciation this year and next.”<br/>
Volcanic ash from Mount Rinjani has caused several flights, including those from Bali to Lombok and several Australian destinations, to be disrupted. Among the airlines affected are Garuda Indonesia, Lion Air, Tigerair and Virgin Airlines, said local reports on Monday. Thirteen of the domestic and international flights disrupted due to the eruption were meant to take off from or land in Bali's Ngurah Rai airport, Antara News quoted the airport's general manager Trikora Harjo as saying. Posting on its Twitter page, Garuda Indonesia said the Lombok International Airport in Praya will also be closed from 4.55pm (local time) to 10am on Tuesday. In November 2015, hundreds of flights were grounded after Ngurah Rai airport was closed for two days due to its eruption. <br/>
The Royal Thai Navy is spending time and money to ensure the proper expansion of U-tapao airport in Rayong province. The full-scale operational launch of the airport's upgrade, centred on a new passenger terminal and supporting facilities, is now slated for early February next year at the latest. <br/>"We may be some five months behind the previously set schedule and the expansion is more costly, but we really want to get it right," U-tapao director Worapol Tongpricha said. The upgrade is now costing 1.7b baht, up from 700m baht originally budgeted, as additional and modern features have been added. Among them are the acquisition of two sets of aerobridges and construction of a new apron at the airport built by the US more than 50 years ago during the Vietnam War, according to Rear Adm Worapol. <br/>