Real-time flight information resuming at Hong Kong airport after computer glitch leaves passengers struggling

Airport staff resort to hastily writing departure times and gate numbers on whiteboards after digital screens failed to update

Reading Time:4 minutes

Flight information is not being displayed in the airport because of the computer failure. Photo: Elson Li

Willa Wu,Natalie Wong,Edith Lin,Oscar LiuandEmily Hung

Published: 10:19am, 23 Jun 2024Updated: 12:40am, 24 Jun 2024

A computer glitch wiped flight information from digital screens at Hong Kong’s airport for hours on Sunday, leaving passengers scrambling to board their flights for the second time in less than a week after a runway shutdown prompted similar chaos last Monday.

The malfunction did not affect operations to the extent that an immobile cargo plane on the north runway did last week, but the disruption has again raised concerns about the airport’s contingency planning.

Airport staff resorted to hastily writing departure times and gate numbers on whiteboards, which became crowded as passengers tried to find the information for their flights that was arranged neither alphabetically or chronologically.

“Certainly, I did not expect this would happen to an international airport,” said 27-year-old business traveller Peter Lapointe heading to Vietnam.

The Airport Authority apologised for the inconvenience to passengers and said only “a few” flights suffered delays, but admitted fixing the problem took longer than expected. The government told the authority to investigate and file a report.