Police checked for tickets and passports to allow only airline passengers through to the airport to avoid the chaos of last weekend, when activists blocked approach roads, threw debris on to train tracks and trashed the MTR subway station in the nearby new town of Tung Chung.

Protesters also occupied the arrivals hall last month, halting and delaying flights, amid a series of clashes with police.

As night fell on Saturday, there were some cat-and-mouse standoffs between protesters and police in Tung Chung, but no sign of renewed violence.

More than three months of protests have at times paralyzed parts of Hong Kong, a major Asian financial hub, amid running street battles between protesters and police who have responded with tear gas, pepper spray and water cannon. Violent arrests of protesters have drawn international attention.

On Friday night hundreds of demonstrators, many masked and dressed in black, attacked MTR metro stations in the Mong Kok district, targeted because of televised scenes of police beating protesters on a metro train on Aug. 31 as they cowered on the floor.

Activists, angry that the MTR closed stations to stop protesters from gathering and demanding CCTV footage of the beatings, tore down signs, broke turnstiles, set fires on the street and drew graffiti on walls.

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