Originally Posted by
sbiddle
The reality is flight times are routinely taking longer due to increased air traffic.
My flight last week pushed back 5 mins early from AKL. There were no particular delays during push back but we did have to wait quite a while for other aircraft on 05.
Was a 34 approach into WLG and we arrived at the gate exactly on time - so it really was a 70 min flight.
All over the world flights are taking longer due to congestion on the ground.
Aircraft are not flying slower or faster, than the same type of aircraft a decade ago (or 2 - 3 decades ago). Speed at cruise has not changed that much, for the same basic aircraft type (B737, A320, B747 etc).