CHENGDU - Two charter planes will be sent to Saipan in the early hours of Sunday to pick up Chinese tourists stranded by Super Typhoon Yutu, Sichuan Airlines said.

The first flight, operated by an Airbus A330-300 with a capacity of 298 passengers and originally scheduled to depart from Pudong Airport in Shanghai at 12:10 am Sunday, has been rescheduled to 4:30 am Sunday, due to some limitations of the Saipan International Airport.

The departure time for the other flight is yet to be determined.

The Consulate General of China in Los Angeles confirmed Friday that some 1,500 Chinese tourists have been trapped in Saipan.

According to Weather Underground, a real-time weather information provider, Yutu, one of the strongest super typhoons in history, slammed the islands of Tinian and Saipan Wednesday, bringing sustained winds of 289 kph.