Taiwan braced for super Typhoon Maria on Tuesday, as airlines cancelled flights and the weather bureau warned against landslides and flash floods on the heavily industrialised island.

Maria was expected to make landfall late on Tuesday, hitting Taiwan's northern region the hardest, as it moves in a west-northwesterly direction at 30 kilometres per hour from its location 490 kilometres east of Yilan County, weather officials said.

Taiwan is frequently hit by typhoons during the summer, but it has stepped up preparations to guard against them since Typhoon Morakot devastated the island in 2009.