Originally Posted by
hadsst
Jetstream always runs from west to east because of the poleward temperature gradient. In the past few days the jetstream in Europe moved further south to northern Africa (this is related to the current cold snap over Europe), therefore flights from Asia to Europe encounter weaker headwinds and have shorter flight times than usual.
+1
That's why e.g. HKG-FRA, HKG-LHR, etc. are of longer flight duration than the other way around. And yes, the captain did indeed announce on a recent HKG-FRA flight that they can only push back from HKG later since they would otherwise arrive too early and not get a landing slot (curfew).
For connections it's usually better to arrive on time, but if it's the final destination I would rather prefer to arrive earlier than spending extra time on the plane waiting - except maybe when traveling in F...