The flight status board at the departures hall showed several flights listed as "boarding soon" with new take-off times listed for others.

Despite the airport reopening, Hong Kong flag carrier Cathay Pacific said it has cancelled over 200 flights to and out of the airport on Tuesday, according to its website. Cathay Pacific said it would only operate a limited number of flights for connecting passengers. Airport flight boards showed the likes of Emirates Airline and Virgin Australia had flights scheduled to depart on Tuesday.

Passengers with luggage were being checked in for flights, and only a handful of the thousands of protesters who flooded into the airport a day earlier remained in the building.

More than 300 flights were cancelled on Tuesday at Hong Kong International Airport, leaving passengers stranded the day after a mass sit-in brought one of the world’s busiest travel hubs to a complete halt.

As of 8am, 160 departing flights and 150 arrivals, due to leave or land at the airport between midnight on Monday evening and 11.55pm on Tuesday, were cancelled.

Long lines of passengers formed in the departure hall at check-in counters, as the airport tried to recover from Monday’s chaos and airlines strived to clear their backlogs, while others were seen sleeping after camping at the airport overnight.

Hong Kong Airport Authority said the airport had rescheduled flights on Tuesday, which meant flight movements would be affected.