Delta, American, and United are canceling flights from Shanghai as a typhoon forces the city's airports to suspend all flights
- Shanghai's two airports are suspending all flights because of Typhoon Chanthu.
- This includes flights operated by Delta, American, United, Qantas, and KLM.
- "Passenger safety is our number one priority," the Shanghai Airport Authority said.
Shanghai's two airports are canceling all flights because of a typhoon set to bring heavy rain to China's east coast.
A pop-up message on the Shanghai Airport Authority website on Monday morning said that all flights in and out of Pudong International Airport would be canceled from 11 a.m. local time (11.p.m. Sunday ET) and all flights in and out of Hongqiao Airport from 3 p.m. (3 a.m. Monday ET).
This includes flights operated by Delta, American, United, Qantas, and KLM.
An American Airlines flight to Los Angeles International, set to depart from Pudong at 3:15 p.m. Monday (3:15 a.m. ET), was canceled, according to the flight tracker on the airport's website.
All of Delta Airlines' 15 internal flights departing from Pudong Monday, which are operated as codeshare flights with Chinese airlines, have also been canceled, according to the flight tracker. Some of its Tuesday flights are still listed as "scheduled" on the site, though others are listed as canceled.
Delta, American, and United did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.
Pudong handled 76.2 million passengers in 2019, according to data from the Chinese government. This made it China's second-busiest airport, behind Beijing Capital.
Bloomberg reported that the state-owned Shanghai Airport Authority first announced the cancellations on Sunday night.
Flight traffic at both airports was "sharply reduced" from midnight on Sunday night, with almost 80% of scheduled flights being canceled, the airport authority said.
Shanghai Airport Authority said that it made the decision "in response to Typhoon Chanthu." Local officials say the typhoon, which was downgraded from a super typhoon to a strong typhoon on Sunday, could bring up to 11 inches of rain to the provinces of Shanghai, Jiangsu, and Zhejiang, which lie along China's east coast, The South China Morning Post reported.
The alert didn't say when the flight suspensions would end. The Shanghai Airport Authority said it would adjust and release the latest flight schedules "according to prevailing typhoon conditions."
"Passenger safety is our number one priority and we apologize for any inconvenience this may cause you," it added.