We are waiting to board our flight from YVR to YPR. They have announced that the flight will fly to YXT instead of YPR, and we will be bussed two hours to YPR. They claim that this is a weather-related rescheduling.
I phoned home to advise about the flight change, and according to family it is clear sunny and beautiful in YPR tonight. On the weather forecast, there is a risk of some fog later tonight.
It seems that they are rescheduling the flight on the possibility that there might be fog in YPR. In previous years, with fog on landing in YPR we have made attempts at landing, and if the attempt was unsuccessful we diverted to YXT. Clearly is is cheaper for the airline to reschedule to YXT rather than attempt a landing at YPR then possibly divert.
This seems a little sketchy to me, blaming a diversion on weather when in fact it is an economic calculation based on the possiblity of adverse weather.
Just wondering if this is legit and standing operating procedure or not.
Incidentally we boarded the aircraft and then de-boarded (un-boarded?) the aircraft as they told us they needed to change the brakes - never had this happen before either.