Typhoon Bavi grounds thousands of flights across China

Widespread flight cancellations

Typhoon Bavi, the ninth tropical storm of the year, made landfall in Zhejiang province on Saturday before unleashing severe weather across vast swathes of southern and eastern China, disrupting travel for thousands of passengers during the peak weekend period. Chinese airlines canceled over 2,800 inbound and outbound flights scheduled for Sunday alone, according to travel analytics platform Umetrip cited by the Global Times. Hundreds of additional services faced delays or suspensions affecting major cities including Nanjing, Hangzhou, Wuhan, Shenyang, Dalian and Chengdu.

Major hubs brace for disruption

Beijing Capital International Airport and Beijing Daxing International Airport, two of the nation's primary air transport hubs, reported large-scale delays as rainstorms hammered northern China throughout the morning and afternoon. Shanghai Pudong International Airport and Shanghai Hongqiao International Airport warned of significantly reduced operational capacity throughout Sunday, with authorities projecting that nearly 30 percent of inbound and outbound flights would be canceled as conditions deteriorated. Forty-five airports across the country, including facilities in Hangzhou and Changzhou in East China's Jiangsu Province, issued formal thunderstorm alerts as meteorologists predicted continued downpours and unstable atmospheric conditions.

Rail network suspends services

The storm's impact extended beyond aviation as railway authorities in multiple regions suspended high-speed train operations on several key routes to ensure passenger safety amid the deteriorating weather conditions. Airports in southeastern Fujian, eastern Zhejiang, the southern Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region and southern Hainan province all reported significant disruptions to their scheduled services. Weather forecasters said some areas would experience additional heavy rainfall and potential flooding through Sunday evening, compounding the travel chaos across the country's transport infrastructure.