Cathay Pacific Asia Miles - Headwinds SFO-HKG = fuel stop in TPE

My flight tonight is being diverted due to high winds. How common is this?

It's not uncommon during the winter months due to very strong headwinds and the SFO/LAX - HKG run is long! I once did YVR-HKG and had to stop for refuelling in TPE too! But I'm sure the refuelling was done in a hurry!

Yes the head winds cause the problems
HKG - Toronto is direct 14 hrs 25
Toronto - HKG is via Vancouver
4 hrs 25 then stopover for fuel (no pax joining) 75 mins then 14 hrs 05 to HKG

When I used to fly UA SFO-HKG, 3 out of 4 early-winter (Dec/Jan) flights ran out of gas and did a TPE fuel stop. (On 2 of those occasions, the fuel stop was announced even before we left SFO.)

We remained on the plane during refueling. It took about 30 minutes on the ground, and it added a total of about 1h15 to the flight time.

This used to be quite common over winter especially when CX used 742s. I guess it isn't too much of a problem with 744s.

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Toronto - HKG is via Vancouver</font>

CX used to stop in ANC but the U.S. requirement that pax have to clear U.S. immigration and customs resulted in ANC being dropped by YVR (and CX has fground staff at YVR anyway) and YVR is only 350 miles outof the way than ANC is.

Here's an esoteric question. I'm flying YVR-HK in a few days, and I wonder if the winds tend to be stronger for the night flight or the day flight, or does it not make any difference? In other words, will I have time to shower in HK?

It is not a surprise. The headwinds can get so strong that even the LAX to Taipei flight had to stop at Okinawa for additional fuel. For CX, my dad had unscheduled stops at Kansai Osaka at least twice. It is not surprising that the YVR-HKG flights had to stop at Taipei.

For CX 829, YYZ-ANC-HKG actually followed the typical North Pole westbound route. Indeed on most YVR to HKG routes, the aircraft flew NW towards ANC (seward) and then into Japan and Taiwan and Hong Kong. The flying time from ANC to HKG is about ten or eleven hours, but YVR to HKG took almost thirteen to fourteen hours in winter.

For those poor folks flying from YYZ to HKG, it may turn into a two stop flight easily.

Carfield http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif

on the sfo-hkg cx uses the 340's which may have a payload restriction (like that on the hkg-yyz sector). with sq, which uses the 744, there has been no problems. the last few days sq1 planned to call a tech stop in tpe but flew direct to hkg. maybe it's time to switch to the polar route where payload does not exist

I had a flight from YVR-HKG that tech'd at SEL in 1992 (B747-267B)!. The headwinds/jetstream hit up to 350km/h from memory over the coast of Japan.

Clement

I can assure you that the pilots know about the unscheduled fueling stop before they ever board the plane.

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speedbird001

The TPE stop didn't happen in the end. As we approached TPE the captain made an announcement that there were enough fumes in the tanks to squeek into HKG. We got in about two hours late without the stop!

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">I can assure you that the pilots know about the unscheduled fueling stop before they ever board the plane.</font>

That's not always the case. On a trip when my husband was cockpit jumpseating home from Europe the captain first joked that there were some headwinds and so they should leave him in England and load more fuel. The calculations actually looked fine and they took my husband. Well, headwinds proved stronger and they ended up having to stop for more fuel. These stops are expensive. If they can leave parcels or passengers behind it's usually a much cheaper option.

How about UA 895 (ord-hkg)? How come that flight rarely gets low on fuel [15hr45min]?

I think it all depend on the type/config/load of the airplane. The last time I check UA's plane has less seats than CX.

Cargo is said to be very important to CX hence the a/c may carry more weight.

Has anyone heard of refuelling stops and the frequency of those on CO's EWR-JFK flights? CX flies YYZ-HKG which is a shorter distance but the a/c used to refuel in ANC and now always make a technical stop at YVR.

Terenz,

Nitpicking here, but I'm sure you meant CO's JFK-HKG route.

Double zing! Actually, I'm sure he meant EWR to HKG...

.........should keep my mouth shut......