CX293 HKG-FCO on 20-August was delayed 10 hours. Any fellow members know the reason for the delay?

Thanks

Based on news report, its because HKG-FCO flight is delayed 8 hours due to maintenance, hence the delay till next morning.

http://hk.on.cc/hk/bkn/cnt/news/2015...e7f4fac&view=m

But the root of the problem is CX has basically zero spare B77W, as all their aircrafts are allocated to flying nightly. So whenever one plane goes tech, one of their overnight flights will get delayed till next morning. It used to be CX 255 that suffers the most, followed by the Milan CX 233 flight I would say. Like the last time when CX had a plane to LAX grounded in Anchorage, I knew instantly that one of its European flights the next morning would be delayed - and soon enough it was the Milan flight on 31 July that was delayed till the next morning.

Since CX has 19 3-class B77W (according to wiki), utilization as follows

1-2 FCO
3-5 JNB/YVR (CX 838)
6-8 AMS/SFO (CX 830)
9-11 YYZ (CX 826)/LHR (CX 255)
12-14 EWR/LHR (CX 239)
15-17 MAN (DAY 1246)/YYZ (CX 824/828)
18 SYD (CX 139)
19 CDG (CX 279) - Day 146

Add in Sydney and Auckland daily in the winter schedule with B77W and only one extra B77W delivery.

So basically with zero operational spares, there is no choice but to delay selected overnight departures till the morning

Same with the 4-cabins, which CX has 33 of them, which all of them are fully utilized

1-3 ORD/LHR (CX 251)
4-6 FRA/JFK (CX 830)
7-8 CDG
9-10 SFO (CX 872)
11-16 LAX (All four flights)
17-18 BOS (DAY 1246)
19-20 MXP
21-23 LHR (CX 255/253)
24-25 ZRH
26-27 JFK (840)
28-29 JFK (846)
30-31 YVR-JFK (CX 888)
32-33 DUS (DAY 1246 FROM SEPT) and SFO (CX 892 DAY 246)

Great summary!

This is highly inaccurate. The fact that you're quoting oriental fail-y should be clue enough.

The FCO flight wasn't delayed due to maintenance; a lack of pilots caused the issue.

On top of that, utilisation as per your list is crazy. Aircraft aren't specifically allocated to routes. They rotate throughout the network based on their departure/arrival/maintenance times. If you honestly think Cathay has no spare aircraft, then you're hugely misguided. Go down to Haeco and check what's hanging around the apron there.

I think the poster was trying to roughly account for where all the 77G/77H frames are being used, not where each exact frame goes.

For example, CX139/138 requires one 77G frame to operate daily (not necessarily the same frame each day) - CX139 departs HKG at 0900 and the return CX138 arrives HKG at 0515 the next day.

A more complicated example, for frames 1-3 ORD/LHR:
Frame 1: CX806 departs HKG at 1155 on day 1, CX807 returns to HKG at 2020 on day 2, CX255 departs HKG at 0035 on day 3, CX252 returns to HKG at 0655 on day 4, CX806 departs HKG at 1155 on day 4, repeat.
Frame 2: same as above, starting on day 2.
Frame 3: same as above, starting on day 3.

Of course, like you said aircraft are rotated throughout the system based on maintenance needs and regional route flying as well. The post was a good back-of-the-envelope approximation for how the 77Gs and 77Hs are being utilized on long-haul routes, and it shows that, at least for the routes I highlighted above, they are being pretty well-utilized with no spare frames sitting around for days as a back-up. Of course, there is still some downtime, which is why you see 77Gs and 77Hs on regional routes. In the ORD/LHR example above, 5 hours between CX252 and CX806 is a bit tight, but given an extra few hours, the frame could easily fit in a MNL run.

Not a 77W but the 773 fleet (or its pilots) are just as bad 19Aug CX581 http://hk.on.cc/hk/bkn/cnt/news/2015...4e3deb1e7f4fac

Thanks for the info. I just flew the return leg FCO-HKG. The reg is B-KQY in case you are interested.

Consequential IDG http://hk.on.cc/hk/bkn/cnt/news/2015...4e3deb1e7f4fac , CX hasn't contacted the pax for comp yet. Pax threatening Small Claims Tribunal.