Kalmaegi And Fung Wong Disrupt Flights In Southeast Asia

Published on Nov 20, 2025, 8:43 pm CST

8 min read

Key points

Typhoon Kalmaegi and Super Typhoon Fung Wong have disrupted flights and port operations in the Philippines, Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from November 4 to 10 2025
Vietnam Airlines and other carriers cancelled or rescheduled more than 50 flights and temporarily closed at least six airports in central Vietnam as Kalmaegi made landfall
Airports and seaports in central Vietnam, including gateways near Chan May, Da Nang, Dung Quat, Qui Nhon, and Nha Trang, closed between November 5 and 8, pushing cruise calls and coastal itineraries into holding patterns
AirAsia Philippines and AirAsia Malaysia cancelled multiple Manila flights on November 9 and 10 ahead of Super Typhoon Fung Wong, as the Philippines declared a year long state of national calamity after back to back storms
Travelers with upcoming trips in the region should expect lingering disruption, build in buffer nights, avoid tight self connections, track airline waivers, and plan flexible routings around storm affected hubs

Impact

Where Impacts Are Most Likely: Expect the heaviest travel disruption around central and southern Philippines plus central Vietnam, with inland flooding risks extending into Laos and Cambodia and periodic impacts on key air and sea corridors
Best Times To Travel: If plans are flexible, aim to travel after mid November 2025 once airports, ports, and ground links stabilize, and avoid storm peak windows when long distance trips can easily unravel
Connections And Misconnect Risk: Treat Manila area flights and Vietnam routes linking Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City with central provinces as high risk for misconnects, and avoid self connecting on separate tickets through these hubs until operations normalize
What Travelers Should Do Now: Check every upcoming itinerary for segments touching storm affected regions, watch airline and cruise alerts daily, move to protected through tickets where possible, and carry insurance that covers weather disruption
Health And Safety Factors: Plan for power cuts, localized shortages, and road and rail washouts in hard hit provinces, obey all local evacuation or movement orders, and avoid sightseeing in flood or landslide zones even after skies clear

Two powerful storms, Typhoon Kalmaegi and Super Typhoon Fung Wong, have sharply disrupted air and sea travel across the Philippines, Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia, closing runways, ports, and busy coastal routes in early November 2025. Typhoon Kalmaegi Vietnam flights in particular have been cancelled or rerouted as airlines and airports in central provinces paused operations, while Philippine carriers faced mass disruption around Manila and regional hubs when Fung Wong came ashore. Travelers with near term trips into the region should expect a multi week period of unstable schedules, infrastructure repairs, and rolling weather alerts, and should react by adding buffer time, avoiding tight self connections, and building more flexible routings.

In practical terms, the storms have turned a standard early high season window into a complex planning problem, especially for itineraries that link the Philippines and Vietnam or rely on smaller regional airports and ports. Kalmaegi killed well over 180 people in the Philippines and at least five in Vietnam, with Reuters and local officials putting the Philippine death toll near 200 as of November 7 and warning of further casualties as search operations continue. Days later, Fung Wong struck as a super typhoon, forcing more than one million people from their homes and prompting a year long state of national calamity that now frames how authorities manage both recovery and future storms.

How Kalmaegi Hit Flights And Ports

Kalmaegi formed at the end of October, crossed the central Philippines around November 3 and 4, then reintensified over the South China Sea before making landfall in central Vietnam around November 6. In the Philippines, days of extreme rain and wind produced flash floods and landslides, destroying riverside neighborhoods and damaging roads, bridges, and rail lines that tourists often use to reach resort areas.

As Kalmaegi approached Vietnam, the Civil Aviation Authority and state media confirmed that Vietnam Airlines cancelled or rescheduled more than 50 flights on November 6 and 7, mostly domestic services linking Ho Chi Minh City, Hanoi, and central provinces. At least six airports, including Buon Ma Thuot Airport (BMV), Chu Lai Airport (VCL), Lien Khuong International Airport (DLI), Pleiku Airport (PXU), Phu Cat Airport (UIH), and Tuy Hoa Airport (TBB), temporarily suspended operations as the core of the storm moved inland. Flights into and out of major Vietnamese hubs, including Tan Son Nhat International Airport (SGN) in Ho Chi Minh City and Noi Bai International Airport (HAN) in Hanoi, continued to run but were repeatedly delayed or rerouted when central airports went offline and aircraft and crew fell out of position.

Sea travel followed a similar pattern. Shipping advisories and port circulars report that seaports serving Chan May, Da Nang, Dung Quat, Qui Nhon, and Nha Trang either suspended operations or imposed strict limits between roughly November 5 and 8, forcing cargo and cruise vessels to wait offshore or divert to alternative harbors while pilots suspended movements in exposed channels. Some cruise calls into central Vietnam were shifted to sea days or to replacement ports, and river and coastal excursions were temporarily halted as local authorities prioritized flood control and repair work.

Inland, Kalmaegi cut power to around 1.3 million people in central Vietnam, damaged thousands of homes, and interrupted key rail links, including sections of the north south mainline, creating secondary disruption for travelers who rely on trains to bridge gaps between flights. Even as airports reopen, sporadic outages, debris removal, and landslide risk keep door to door travel times longer and less predictable than normal.

Fung Wong's Shock To Philippine Aviation

While Vietnam began damage control, the Philippines braced for its second major storm in a week. Fung Wong intensified into a super typhoon before landfall around November 9, its wind field covering much of Luzon and affecting two thirds of the archipelago according to local weather services.

Ahead of landfall, AirAsia Philippines and AirAsia Malaysia preemptively cancelled a slate of domestic and international flights that touched Manila and other at risk airports on November 9 and 10, joining Philippine Airlines and Cebu Pacific in trimming schedules and moving aircraft out of harm's way. Ninoy Aquino International Airport (MNL) remained technically open, but hundreds of flights systemwide were scrubbed or delayed when crosswinds exceeded safety limits, and when ground handling crews paused work in dangerous conditions.

By November 10, Fung Wong had left at least eight people dead and displaced more than 1.4 million, with nearly three million residents losing power at some point during the storm. Because the ground was already saturated from Kalmaegi, hillsides failed more easily, roads washed out faster, and emergency services across multiple regions were stretched thin, which in turn made it harder to restore normal airport and port operations.

Laos And Cambodia: Fewer Flights, Higher Flood Risk

Once Kalmaegi crossed Vietnam's coast, the system and its remnant rains continued inland across Laos and Cambodia, triggering regional weather advisories that warned of flash floods, river surges, and landslides in mountain districts. International airports in Vientiane and Phnom Penh remained open, but secondary roads and provincial transport were more vulnerable, especially in areas already affected by earlier storms.

For travelers, the main risk in Laos and Cambodia is less about mass flight cancellations and more about local mobility. Overland transfers to remote temples, trekking centers, or river lodges can be cut off for days when bridges or ferries go out of service, and tour operators may adjust or cancel excursions at short notice to avoid putting guests into unstable terrain.

Safety Advisories And Baseline Security Risks

Beyond the storms themselves, visitors need to factor in underlying security and crime risks that shape official government advice. The United States currently rates Vietnam as Level 1, exercise normal precautions, with weather alerts and flood bulletins issued through embassy channels during Kalmaegi's landfall. The Philippines sits at Level 2, exercise increased caution, because of crime, terrorism, civil unrest, and kidnapping, with specific warnings against travel to the Sulu Archipelago and parts of Mindanao that are unrelated to the storms but relevant for route planning.

These advisories do not tell travelers to avoid storm hit regions entirely, but they do underscore the need to stay informed, avoid demonstrations, and follow local directions around curfews, checkpoint routes, and restricted coastal zones. When typhoons overlap with existing security concerns, even routine diversions or roadblocks can last longer and be enforced more strictly than they might in purely weather driven situations.

How To Plan Or Replan Trips Around The Storms

If you are already in the region, the priority is to stabilize your current position before trying to push onward. Confirm that your hotel has reliable backup power and water, extend your stay if local transport is badly disrupted, and work with your airline or cruise line to move onto the earliest realistic flight or sailing that still gives you room for onward connections. When possible, protect yourself with through tickets on a single reservation rather than self connecting between low cost carriers, since airlines are much more likely to rebook you automatically if all segments sit under one booking code.

For travelers who have not yet departed, it may be wiser to delay nonessential trips into the hardest hit provinces of central Philippines and central Vietnam until at least late November. Even when airports like Da Nang International Airport (DAD), Phu Cat Airport (UIH), or Tuy Hoa Airport (TBB) return to normal operating hours, nearby roads and tourist infrastructure can lag behind, and some tours that depend on intact trails or piers may be unavailable for an entire season.

Any Southeast Asia itinerary between roughly June and November, when the region's typhoon risk is highest, should now build in at least one buffer night on each end of a complex routing, especially when combining flights and cruises. Aim to avoid last flight of the day options into small airports during active storm windows, and allow generous connection times in major hubs to absorb delays from weather affected feeder routes. Comprehensive travel insurance that covers weather disruption, trip interruption, and additional accommodation costs is no longer a nice to have in this corridor, it is a practical necessity.

Background: Storm Seasons And A Warming Region

Meteorological agencies and climate researchers are clear that storms like Kalmaegi and Fung Wong fit a pattern of fewer but more intense tropical cyclones in the western Pacific, driven by warmer sea surface temperatures and higher atmospheric moisture. The Philippines, in particular, has seen a recent increase in the number of super typhoons, with annual storm damage already estimated in the billions of dollars before this latest pair of disasters.

For travelers, this does not mean abandoning Southeast Asia altogether, but it does mean approaching the storm season with the same seriousness many apply to winter operations in North America or Europe. Watching forecasts, booking flexible fares, and favoring carriers with strong rebooking policies are all part of making these trips workable in a climate stressed era.