BEIJING - A China Southern Airlines aircraft took off from Guangzhou, capital of Guangdong Province, at 4 pm Tuesday for Luxor, Egypt, to bring back about 220 stranded Hong Kong residents.

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The flight was postponed due to applications for landing permission and approval from the countries it will fly over, said a posting on the airline's official microblog.

An earlier posting said the flight was scheduled to leave Guangzhou at 11 am.