Flights resume at Sanya airport after Typhoon Maysak weakens

HAIKOU -- Flights resumed at Sanya Phoenix International Airport in south China's Hainan province, at 6:00 am Saturday as Typhoon Maysak, the 10th typhoon of the year, weakened.

The tropical storm made landfall at around 6:20 pm Friday in Yelin township of Lingshui Li autonomous county, according to the Hainan provincial meteorological bureau. It swept across Hainan Island into the northern Beibu Gulf on Friday night.

The first outbound flight CZ6731 took off at 7:18 am Saturday.

The bureau maintained a Level-III typhoon warning at 9:20 am Saturday, as Typhoon Maysak was located about 155 kilometers south-southeast of Dongxing city in southwest China's Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region as of 8 am, with maximum sustained winds of 23 meters per second near its center.

Maysak is expected to move north-northwest at 10 to 15 kilometers per hour and maintain its current intensity. It is forecast to make landfall again on Saturday night along the coast near the border between Guangxi and northern Vietnam, after which it will turn northward and gradually weaken.