Why havent Cathay Pacific cancelled Hong Kong flight today

[Maz11]

My sister is flying out to Hong Kong on CX146 at 11:25 today on Cathay, she then has a connecting flight on CX293 to Rome. On Sunday Boarding Midnight.

As far as we can work out this will put her in the middle of Typhoon fall out.

Her flight was a group flight booked through Flight Centre, she doesnt want to go and be stuck at Hong Kong Airport or worse, but insurance wont pay unless flight cancelled. I read Qantas has cancelled their HK flights.

Any advise on what to do???

 

[davidj]

Any advise on what to do???

Call Cathay or FC to confirm?

 

[Maz11]

Call Cathay or FC to confirm?

Have done this.. flight has not been cancelled she was referred back to the Travel Agent

 

[Maz11]

Have done this.. flight has not been cancelled she was referred back to the Travel Agent who says cant do anything at this point.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Have done this.. flight has not been cancelled she was referred back to the Travel Agent

Someone once told me that Cathay will be 'last in and first out' during weather events... supposedly on the basis that their pilots are more experienced flying in these conditions. How much truth to that who knows, but it's likely CX have a good understanding of how weather will affect their operations and will plan accordingly. Their flight patterns may differ from other airlines that don't have as much experience. or don't want to have aircraft stuck on the ground unable to fly.

I'd keep an eye out on the Cathay website for service disruptions. I don't know what options your sister will have anyway - perhaps wait out a day in Australia. Not sure if CX will accommodate her on another airline, but CX is usually ok for service recovery.

 

[drron]

I think there is a lot of truth in that saying but also goes for Japanese airlines.Flying JAL we have flown in and out of NRT in a typhoon.
Flying in was hairy especially sitting in Row 1 with the front camera showing the landing - theplane was moving great distances laterally.Got in on third attempt.
Flying out we went on time but the QF flight was delayed.Not sure how many hours late they were.

 

[Forg]

I was booked on a CX flight which was still non-cancelled when I left home for the airport; but was cancelled by the time I tried to check in due to a typhoon in HK.

They put me on BA, got me to LHR 2hrs before I would’ve on my original flights.

 

[jb747]

Sounds like a frog in boiling water discussion.....

 

[Maz11]

Thanks all, it turned out ok , She flew into hong kong and out half an hour before they said they were shutting down all flights

 

[kamchatsky]

Good news. Now HK is Signal 10. Good luck to everyone around that area.

 

[equus]

Someone once told me that Cathay will be 'last in and first out' during weather events... supposedly on the basis that their pilots are more experienced flying in these conditions..

Probably also has a lot to do with flying planes into/ out of home base. Much more scope and flexibility to swap equipment and work around flow on issues, and little risk of leaving equipment and crew stranded at out ports.

 

[jb747]

I expect that it has much to do with the fact that many flights are relatively short, which means their reaction times are correspondingly shorter.

You don’t get good at flying into typhoons or better at windshear by practising in the real thing. You do end up with less airframes though...

The last time I had a flight to HKG in typhoon season cancelled, the airport was open, but the weather was such that I would not have even had a go. I think the idea of me having a 380 on a random ‘Women’s Weekly World discovery tour of Asia’, probably wasn’t high on the list of good ideas for my fleet manager. I quite liked it though, and as is was a positioning flight from Manila, with no passengers, who knows where we might have gone.

I have also been the first aircraft to land after the airport reopened. It took 3 attempts.

 

[Scott K]

Someone once told me that Cathay will be 'last in and first out' during weather events... supposedly on the basis that their pilots are more experienced flying in these conditions. How much truth to that who knows, but it's likely CX have a good understanding of how weather will affect their operations and will plan accordingly. Their flight patterns may differ from other airlines that don't have as much experience. or don't want to have aircraft stuck on the ground unable to fly.

I'd keep an eye out on the Cathay website for service disruptions. I don't know what options your sister will have anyway - perhaps wait out a day in Australia. Not sure if CX will accommodate her on another airline, but CX is usually ok for service recovery.

I just saw this, so I'm probably a bit late. Some Cathay flights have been known to land at Lantau in as high as a T8 warning, and taking off tends to be less risky depending on the wind direction. SO yeah, the Cathay pilots tend to have higher experience.

HK airports have learned a lot since the Chinese Airlines plane crashed mid storm at the old Kai Tak airport. There has been a lot of planning and consideration into procedures and facilities since then, as they don't want any storm related incidents shutting down a runway.

 

[jb747]

I just saw this, so I'm probably a bit late. Some Cathay flights have been known to land at Lantau in as high as a T8 warning, and taking off tends to be less risky depending on the wind direction. SO yeah, the Cathay pilots tend to have higher experience.

HK airports have learned a lot since the Chinese Airlines plane crashed mid storm at the old Kai Tak airport. There has been a lot of planning and consideration into procedures and facilities since then, as they don't want any storm related incidents shutting down a runway.

This probably has more relevance than anything that happened at the old airport. China Airlines Flight 642 - Wikipedia

 

[Scott K]

I

This probably has more relevance than anything that happened at the old airport. China Airlines Flight 642 - Wikipedia

I completely forgot about that incident!

 

[Forg]

Innit MD11 = DC10 = Deathtrap?!