In preparation for the coming typhoon season, Hong Kong International Airport staged a comprehensive annual exercise involving more than 500 participants from about 20 organizations early Friday.

The exercise simulated various weather-related contingent scenarios to test the airport's response capability in crowd management, baggage handling, flight rescheduling, information dissemination and more.

"Inclement weather is a common concern among airports around the world...We can minimize the impact by thoroughly preparing the airport community for such situations," said CK Ng, senior official from Airport Authority Hong Kong.

For this reason, we conduct about 15 seminars, drills and exercises related to weather every year, said Ng. The multi-scenario exercise began at 00:01 a.m. local time, when the airport community was informed of the approach of a typhoon. The Airport Emergency Center was activated for cooperation.

At the passenger terminals, Airport Authority, Police, airport security staff, airlines and ground handling agents jointly activated their crowd management contingency plans to provide assistance to passengers and maintain order in the airport.

The exercise stood down at 3:30 a.m. local time.