What's wrong with KA906?
 

I'm travelling on KA 906 in August (HKG-PEK). Before booking I noticed ExpertFlyer had given it an on time performance of like 50% with average delay of 52 minutes.

I thought maybe it just hit a run of bad luck.... But some time later, it still seems to be highly delayed:
http://flightaware.com/live/flight/HDA906

ExpertFlyer shows ontime 65%, with average delay of a whopping 65 minutes.

Are all DragonAir flights around this time subject to similar delays?

Check out the stats for CA110 and CA116.

Late in the day. One of the most congested and restricted air routes. The result is not surprising.

Beijing or Shanghai flights are known for delay due to weather conditions or air space control.

The worst part of is they close the cabin door and wait for clear from atc. It is not unusual to wait for 60-90 minutes.

Coming out of China you're always at risk of air space control by the Chinese military, and Beijing and Shanghai air space have become a zoo. With Hong Kong/Guangzhou/Shenzhen airspace are very congested I'm surprise it hasn't cracked yet.

About three weeks ago, there was heavy rain in Beijing, Hong Kong, and Shanghai at the same time, which made flying complete hell.

As such, I only fly during the summer when I really need to. I've experienced 3 big delays during the past month alone.

A little side note
KA 905 yesterday (29/6) has yet showing arriving, what has happened?
There is a KA905D, is it another aircraft replacing KA905?

I think I can answer that :). The flight got redirected to Shanghai and flew off to PEK the next day with new crew.

How do I know. It happened to me when i took KA 906 on 7/7. It was delayed for 3 hours due to air space control. Took off at 10:30pm and actually arrived to Beijing but the airport was closed to severe thunderstorm. Circled for about an hour and redirected to Shanghai.

KA arranged hotel for us and got to hotel like 6:30am. The KA 906D was scheduled for 2:30pm but it took off at 6pm. Bad weather again :mad:

I actually arrived in Beijing around 8:30pm...Should have just gone straight to high speed train station for Beijing after landed at Shanghai.

yep, I was gonna say, with the ridiculous Beijing Airport situation (constant delays, cancellations, airspace shut down, etc.) and the High Speed Rail available as option, if I wanted to go to Beijing, I would take High Speed Rail

I always take the train, but it isn't so practical if you happen to be at PVG (one hour to get to Hongqiao, 30 minutes to get a ticket and board a train, 5 hours on the train). The airplane delay has to be REALLY bad to make flying a worse option.

6 hour delay back on 4th June from Beijing to HKG. Worst I have ever experienced on the route. 6 hours sat on the plane with no movement. They actually allowed passengers off eventually after a barrage of complaints and extracted their luggage. Not even a taxi voucher offered upon landing after 1am.......

That whole, "door must be closed in order to get clearance" rule is one of the most inhumane constructs of mankind in places like Beijing. It's even worse when you get a remote stand a mile away from the terminal. In that case, you really a prisoner, though I once demanded a car be out sent out to fetch me after spending 3 hours baking in a plane on the tarmac in Shenzhen.

If any of you have noticed, CX365 also has an on-time rating of 0...

As the Chinese military refused to give CNAC more airspace, and as China continues to proliferate in commercial flying, and a little known fact in China: private jets gets priority over against commercial planes (probably because they are rich and famous and powerful, and in China they get right-of-way with anything), this problem will worsen. Beijing is already an example of how messed up Chinese airport can be.

I'm not so sure I agree. I've helped a few F500 clients fly over here in their G5s with the support of CITIC's top brass, and getting flight plans approved is still really, really hard.

This was one of the main topics at the --heavily attended-- business aviation show in Shanghai last year.

When was the last time you ever saw a business jet operate during sane hours at PEK? It just doesn't happen.

Anyone know why they landed at PVG instead of a closer airport?

TSN is really nice for getting to PEK, although no KA/CX flights other than a CA codeshare.