Air New Zealand Air Points - ANZ 5 LAX-AKL does it depart late frequently?

I was wondering about the on time departure of Air New Zealand flight 5 from LAX to AKL. That's the flight I am taking in just under two weeks. I was curious if the flight ever departed late, and if so, by how much? I went to flightaware.com and entered the information, Air New Zealand, flight 5, and took a look at it's history of departurers. It seems that this past week the flight has departed late quite frequently. I actually don't mind if the flight is late in departing, after all, I have two connections to make just to get to LAX and if any of them are late, this could mess me up in getting into LAX on time for the 9:30 NZ5 to AKL. So in a way, I am kind of glad to see that the flight does depart late just in case I myself am late to the aircrft. However, I am skeptical that the flight is actually late that frequently. If so, why? This past week the flight seems to have departed at 10:20 pm, 10:10 pm, 9:58 pm, 9:47 pm, 10:14 pm, 11:21 pm, 11:13 pm, 11:05 pm. It's supposed to depart at 9:30 pm. Although some of the departure times were not too bad, for example, departing at 9:58 and 9:47, but some of the departurers were really late departing at 11:21, 11:13, and 11:05. I think I must not be looking at or interpreting this flightaware website correctly becasue I am just skeptical that the flight would be more than 20 min late. Anyhow, on my departure date, I think I do hope it's late, but wanted to see what you thought about how accurate this information might be, and if so why? Thanks for your help.

There were a couple of hour-late departures in the past week, but nothing as late as 2321, 2313, or 2305. The times don't really match up at all, so I suspect flightaware.com may have some screwy data.

The two flights that were late were both 747s (some days of the week NZ5 is a 777) which may be due to unscheduled maintenance on one of our 744 or even the untimely death of one of our 747 training captains :(. In my experience NZ5 doesn't generally have major delays, as the aircraft is parked at LAX for betwen 6-12 hours and any required maintenance is performed at that time.

There were a couple of hour-late departures in the past week, but nothing as late as 2321, 2313, or 2305. The times don't really match up at all, so I suspect flightaware.com may have some screwy data.

The two flights that were late were both 747s (some days of the week NZ5 is a 777) which may be due to unscheduled maintenance on one of our 744 or even the untimely death of one of our 747 training captains :(. In my experience NZ5 doesn't generally have major delays, as the aircraft is parked at LAX for betwen 6-12 hours and any required maintenance is performed at that time.

Thanks nz_crew for the info. I wasn't sure to turst fightaware or not. I assumed a lot of flighaware's info in general may be somewhat accurate, but just not this time for NZ5. Sorry to read about the sad news of your training Captain.

I was on NZ5 last week that departed a bit late. As far as I could tell there was a problem getting a gate early enough for an on time departure.

I was on NZ5 last week that departed a bit late. As far as I could tell there was a problem getting a gate early enough for an on time departure.

I've encountered this issue a couple of times on NZ5, and each time it has been the same cause as you stated - gate access logistics.