Severe weather cancels flights

Thunder and heavy rain caused the cancellation of over 200 flights and delays to more than 70 at Shanghai's Pudong and Hongqiao airports on Tuesday.

Both airports said their takeoff and landing capacity was reduced by 40 percent until 10pm.

About 60 flights due to land or take off at Hongqiao had been canceled as of 6:30pm. Three flights were delayed for over four hours while another 26 were delayed for over two hours.

Six flights due to land at Hongqiao were diverted to other airports due to the severe weather, the airport authority said.

Yan Shuming, a deputy general manager of China Eastern Airlines, said flight delays could continue for some hours, despite the end of the rainstorm.

At Pudong, over 150 flights were canceled and another 40 delayed for at least two hours. Seven flights due to land were diverted to other airports, including one that had to land at Hongqiao.

China Eastern canceled over 60 domestic flights to and from the city's two airports mainly between 4:30pm and 8:30pm. China Southern, Juneyao and Spring airlines also canceled over a dozen flights each due to the weather.