Cathay Pacific Delays/Cancellations

[MEL_Traveller]

Re: General Cathay Pacific Delays/Cancellations/etc. Discussion

CX135 this morning (Tuesday 4 August ex HKG overnight) to MEL did not arrive until 0944, just under three and a half hours late. CX134 is forecast to depart three hours and 10 minutes late at 1050, but 1100 ex the 'Mexican' capital is more likely. It would be interesting to know how many on board will miss connections, although the A333s CX uses are not high capacity.

The reason the 134 was delayed out of HKG last night was that it was waiting for connecting passengers from China. Going the other way (ex MEL) connections aren't usually such an issue given the high frequency of flights exHKG to a multitude of destinations.

 

[Melburnian1]

Re: General Cathay Pacific Delays/Cancellations/etc. Discussion

MEL_Traveller, with discussion in the mainstream media of increasingly crowded mainland Chinese airspace and the added complication of this communist state's air force delaying RPT aircraft due to use of airspace by the military, do you perceive that the late night CX flights to Oz are going to often be delayed like this, or do you consider that it is still relatively rare for this to occur? (I'm excluding weather related delays.)

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Re: General Cathay Pacific Delays/Cancellations/etc. Discussion

MEL_Traveller, with discussion in the mainstream media of increasingly crowded mainland Chinese airspace and the added complication of this communist state's air force delaying RPT aircraft due to use of airspace by the military, do you perceive that the late night CX flights to Oz are going to often be delayed like this, or do you consider that it is still relatively rare for this to occur? (I'm excluding weather related delays.)

Hard to tell. This year and last have been particularly bad for China flights into Hong Kong SAR. While delays of 1-2 hours were common upto 2013, the 8 hour delays are more from the last couple of years. I guess CX is looking to see how to best manage its passengers... do you delay a flight for a couple hours or have to find hotel rooms for 50 people (or how ever many there were) and find alternative flights to fit everyone on?

Guess it will continue to be case by case.

While China delays might be a bigger issue here on AFF (there have been lots of threads and questions about it) - they are not such big news when you're actually there. They are expected (1-2 hours minimum), and inconvenient when they extend beyond that. But they are a fact of life. Aside from taking the train, there's nothing anyone can do.

 

[d.diddy_13]

Re: General Cathay Pacific Delays/Cancellations/etc. Discussion

The reason the 134 was delayed out of HKG last night was that it was waiting for connecting passengers from China. Going the other way (ex MEL) connections aren't usually such an issue given the high frequency of flights exHKG to a multitude of destinations.

Just out of interest how do you know this.... the only reason I ask is that we are travelling on cx134 in a few weeks and have been tracking the flight departure times ex Mel and inbound CX135 and are curious.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Re: General Cathay Pacific Delays/Cancellations/etc. Discussion

Just out of interest how do you know this.... the only reason I ask is that we are travelling on cx134 in a few weeks and have been tracking the flight departure times ex Mel and inbound CX135 and are curious.

I know someone on the flight. Looking at flightaware this delay doesn't seem common - the rest of the days on the list showed the flight more or less on time (for HKG standards).

 

[Melburnian1]

Re: General Cathay Pacific Delays/Cancellations/etc. Discussion

This article is self explanatory. Not good news:

Military exercises hamper Chinese airports - Business Traveller Asia

Travelling by high speed or even 'normal' train in mainland China looks pretty attractive as an alternative.

 

[Melburnian1]

Re: General Cathay Pacific Delays/Cancellations/etc. Discussion

CX163 from HKG on Friday 14 August 2015, the 2150 hours arrival in MEL is about 100 minutes late and should be at the gate at 2330 or so, having not departed HKG this morning until 1226 instead of the scheduled 1035.

CX178, the return 2340 hours departure is not expected to depart until 0035 which is roughly the minimum required turnaround for an A333, despite the relatively low number of passengers carried by CX even when seat occupancy is 100 per cent. It is by no means an A380 type load.

 

[david1]

Re: General Cathay Pacific Delays/Cancellations/etc. Discussion

Plenty of delays ex-PEK today. Not sure how widespread, but I'll miss my onward flight to Adelaide.

Hopefully they can get me on a flight to Melbourne or Sydney later tonight.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Re: General Cathay Pacific Delays/Cancellations/etc. Discussion

Plenty of delays ex-PEK today. Not sure how widespread, but I'll miss my onward flight to Adelaide.

Hopefully they can get me on a flight to Melbourne or Sydney later tonight.

They seem to be running 2-3 hours late. CX has been known to hold some AU flights for connecting pax from China - as much as 2 or so hours. This can be right up until departure, so maybe you might get lucky.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Re: General Cathay Pacific Delays/Cancellations/etc. Discussion

They ended up delaying the CX173 HKG-ADL for four hours last night (scheduled departure 1900, actual departure 22:59). Hopefully you caught the flight!

 

[david1]

Re: General Cathay Pacific Delays/Cancellations/etc. Discussion

I had already been shifted to CX137 to Perth before getting into HKG, and before CX173 was delayed, and they said they couldn't put me back on it. In the end the Perth flight left before the Adelaide one. Had a few hours in Perth then home.

Can't really complain, they were waiting to meet the plane from Beijing, organised everyone and had our new boarding passes ready as soon as we got to the CX desk.

 

[diesmile]

Re: General Cathay Pacific Delays/Cancellations/etc. Discussion

Today my ka 621 fly from HGH to Hong Kong was delayed by one hour. As a resylt my CX 173 flight from Hong Kong to adelaide was missed.

Instead of arriving at adelaide next day at 5:10 a.m. I was offered to fly to Sydney and then fly back to Adelaide with an arrival time of either 11:45 a.m. next day or 4:40 p.m.

I was only given a 75 hong Kong dollars voucher for meals, (only worth around 10 us dollars, so barely enough for a noodle soup)

I wish they can at least offer me lough access, since I need to stay till midnight.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Re: General Cathay Pacific Delays/Cancellations/etc. Discussion

Today my ka 621 fly from HGH to Hong Kong was delayed by one hour. As a resylt my CX 173 flight from Hong Kong to adelaide was missed.

Instead of arriving at adelaide next day at 5:10 a.m. I was offered to fly to Sydney and then fly back to Adelaide with an arrival time of either 11:45 a.m. next day or 4:40 p.m.

I was only given a 75 hong Kong dollars voucher for meals, (only worth around 10 us dollars, so barely enough for a noodle soup)

I wish they can at least offer me lough access, since I need to stay till midnight.

Shame they didn't hold it again. It would have been very close - another 10 minutes and you might have made the flight. It looks like it was slightly delayed, to around 7.10pm.

 

[diesmile]

Re: General Cathay Pacific Delays/Cancellations/etc. Discussion

Yes, I was landed at 6:40, would still made it if they held for another 5 minutes. Cathay probably oversold the tickets, because when I checked in at 1:30pm, my seat number is already 73E.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Re: General Cathay Pacific Delays/Cancellations/etc. Discussion

Yes, I was landed at 6:40, would still made it if they held for another 5 minutes. Cathay probably oversold the tickets, because when I checked in at 1:30pm, my seat number is already 73E.

It seems you lucked out

Just the day before they held the flight. As you say - maybe not enough connecting pax from your flight and/or oversold from earlier delays in the day.

 

[david1]

Re: General Cathay Pacific Delays/Cancellations/etc. Discussion

Today my ka 621 fly from HGH to Hong Kong was delayed by one hour. As a resylt my CX 173 flight from Hong Kong to adelaide was missed.

Instead of arriving at adelaide next day at 5:10 a.m. I was offered to fly to Sydney and then fly back to Adelaide with an arrival time of either 11:45 a.m. next day or 4:40 p.m.

I was only given a 75 hong Kong dollars voucher for meals, (only worth around 10 us dollars, so barely enough for a noodle soup)

I wish they can at least offer me lough access, since I need to stay till midnight.

As above, exact same thing happened to me on Saturday night, although I would have missed the scheduled departure time by more. I didn't get to Adelaide until 2:30pm, via Perth, so it could have been worse!

I think expecting lounge access is too much, but I agree that 75HKD is not really enough, a lot of things in the restaurants seemed to cost 78HKD, I'm sure not by coincidence.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Re: General Cathay Pacific Delays/Cancellations/etc. Discussion

Depends on the reason for the delay. Weather or ATC, and I think CX is doing pretty well to offer anything at all. HKD75 is not much, but can keep you going with a coffee/burger until flight time.

 

[Melburnian1]

Re: General Cathay Pacific Delays/Cancellations/etc. Discussion

CX163, the 2150 hours timetabled arrival in MEL tonight (Friday 4 September 2015) is an expected 96 minutes late tonight, so CX178, the 2340 hours back to HKG is forecast to be 70 minutes late departing MEL.

The evening CX flight into SYD is on time so the MEL delay appears to be a one off.

 

[albatross710]

Re: General Cathay Pacific Delays/Cancellations/etc. Discussion

Had a wonderful arrival into Manila two weeks ago on CX913 HKG-MNL.

It was the night of a torrential storm in Manila city proper which flooded the streets and clogged the roads.

We departed HKG on schedule and then about 15 minutes before an early arrival into MNL, the captain advised that we would be holding and the MNL ATC could not give us any indication of an expected landing time. We were NO 1 in the holding pattern. About 15 minutes later he advised that ATC still could give no indication and he would soon be considering an alternate.

About 5 minutes later he commenced his approach into MNL and landed.

Once we had cleared the runway, we processed on the taxiway towards T3 and came to a stop. I heard the engines shutdown. The captain advised that there were no available gates, as the earlier flights couldn't depart due to the same weather stopping us from landing. We were No 4 in the queue to get to a terminal gate. ATC could not provide a timeframe.

In the end we got the the terminal gate one hour later than scheduled. Really, all of the delay happened in the last 20 miles.

Immigration, baggage collection and customs all went to schedule. Once I contact my driver he was still another 90 minutes away as he too was stuck in the traffic.

Eventually at 1am, I met the driver and we loaded up. A further 45 minutes to get out of the road from T3.

From a nice easy planned 1030pm arrival + 15 minutes car ride to my hotel...i eventually got to be at 3:13am.

It's more fun in the PHilippines - enjoy the adversity.

Alby

 

[Melburnian1]

Re: General Cathay Pacific Delays/Cancellations/etc. Discussion

Informative report about a serious incident on CX170 (PER - HKG) that required an emergency landing in HKG:

Cookies must be enabled. | The Australian

According to CX's website, this flight departed four minutes late at 2359 hours on Thursday 24 September 2015 and was on the ground in DPS at 0339 Bali time on Friday 25 September.

While there has been a CX check pilots' letter (i.e. multiple senior pilots complaining) published in the South China Morning Post about an alleged diminution in the experience of technical crew and hence lowering of 'safety', historically CX has had many experienced pilots from the UK (unsurprising given that Hong Kong was a British colony until not so many years ago) and Australia. From memory quite a few Australians commenced with CX after the collapse of Ansett Australia about 15 years ago.