Originally Posted by
angetenar
I also thought about winter headwinds but that should also impact the December block time
I have seen this before where the block time was extended a bit a few months out. This was a TATL flight in December if I recall correctly. I surmised they updated it once they had a better sense of seasonal weather patterns. I wouldn't think they would want to unnecessarily pad block times too much (despite improving on time performance metrics) because it impacts connections and where flights appear in search results, etc.