Originally Posted by
hydrogen
I know we're starting to drift astray on the topic, but having read the SFO PDF, it seems to imply that any inbound aircraft in the air prior to 9am SFO time should generally not be delayed (or subject to minor delays). Is that correct?
SFO can take 60 arrivals an hour in good weather. If there are clouds in the last ~10 miles (about 3,500 ft), it drops to 30. (In rain and wind, the capacity goes further down to 24.) Before 9 am, there aren't 30 flights to begin with, so as long as an instrument landing can be performed, there won't be any delays.
Back to LAX, the reason weather delays are rare is because LAX still hasn't recovered from the pre-2001 traffic level in terms of number of flights. We're talking about a capacity of 84-92 per hour in good weather and 64-72 in low clouds. There are barely one hour in the morning and one hour in the evening where flights may exceed the cloudy capacity, and this excess can easily be dealt with without causing major effects.
Answers to other subjects:
1. AC only flies from big cities into LAX, so all flights are precleared. AC-CA would be a very easy connection in the same terminal.
2. Morning arrivals from Australia need not worry. There's a whole day and more flights later in the day. Unless it is December 24, Thanksgiving Wednesday/Sunday, or if you have a million-dollar deal in PDX/SEA at noon.
3. Late evening TSA is better than the morning because people arrive early (especially the CA flight at 0140, there are plenty that will be there during the 9 pm hour).
4. JFK terminal changes and SFO 4-hour weather padding (Canada-Asia) are much worse than walking with your carry-on at LAX.
5. LAX is known for delays in domestic baggage deliveries. It's not unusual for no bags to come out as of wheelstop +30 min and not all bags have finished at WS+60. Whether this happens at T2 AC I don't know. Last time I came back from YVR on an E190, it was pretty quick.