As if strike related delays weren't enough to think about...

I've booked NW70, TPE-KIX-DTW, for this thursday. Typhoon Mawar has scheduled it's visit for Japan to occur right over Osaka at about the same time.

Does anyone have any experience with how NW would handle this? I called NW and they said if a typhoon would affect any portion of the flight, they would probably cancel the entire flight. It would make more sense to me to cancel the stop at KIX and fly TPE-DTW direct. I'd think they'd need the aircraft in TPE for the next flight.

Of course, I don't know how they accomodate those KIX-DTW passengers and I'm probably not thinking of a lot of other details as well.

Has anyone had this happen on this flight or a similar situation that can comment?

Unless it's a super strong Typhoon, I doubt Northwest would cancel the flight. I've flown flights out of Tokyo Narita and had flight fly as scheduled even with the Typhoon impacting Tokyo. At the time of my departure, the rain was light despite the high winds. It was probably near category 1 but was not a direct hit.

If there is any impact, I think it would only be impacted by flight delay or even a landing in Tokyo Narita or Nagoya instead. It's passengers possibly could be transferred in Tokyo but I would think that flight load is fairly full this time around so it would eventually make its way to KIX with its passengers. I highly doubt that it would make the TPE-DTW trip without making the stop in KIX. TPE-KIX-DTW flight will have significant amount of passengers that will be unloading/boarding in KIX.

Jiburi

Unless the flight gets diverted to TPE due to fuel issues and other airports getting congested (but I think the closest non-jpn airport to KIX is PUS but I could be wrong) it won't just overshoot KIX, that's almost a near certain.

If the flight takes off and it verywell may and had to be diverted, probably would land in NRT, but the thing is, a lot can change from the time the plane taxes off to the 14hrs later when it's scheduled to arrive so KIX control may verywell let the plane take off, but the hurricane can be anywhere when it arrives.

I was at Narita last year during a Typhoon. There were lots of delays, but we did finally take off. I think it really depends on the route of the Typhoon and how long it's going to affect the airport.

It's the other direction. TPE->KIX. A little under three hours.

The current tracking shows it a bit west of KIX. But you're right... Who knows where this storm will be when we actually try to land.

In July I flew NW from MSP-NRT as typhoon was approaching Tokyo. My connecting flight to Singapore left early, so I missed my connection. NW booked me on Singapore Airlines the following morning and paid for deluxe hotel and dinner. Not too bad, since I was on an award ticket. Good luck!!

I do believe this case is a somewhat unique problem..... This time there are two typhoons proceeding toward Japan running parrallel with each other. Looks like one will hit Osaka about the time the other hits Tokyo....

But....maybe the one heading for Osaka will veer off for Korea.

I would wager money the flight will depart. Many inexpensive mechanics are in the Asian part of the world.

Actually, Tropical Storm 12W has already begun its recurve and isn't expected to make landfall, so I guess Narita would be an option. But since they're only a couple of hours away, I'd think they would just cancel or delay.

I still think it makes more sense to overfly KIX and go straight to DTW. Then they have the equipment is where it's supposed to be for the next flight.

The typhoon heading for Osaka and Kyoto, now is slowing down so I may just get out before it makes landfall. Of course, I don't know when (or if) they'll close the airport. KIX is supposed to be earthquake an typhoon proof. Part of me wanted to spend the typhoon there...

... I went to a party not too long ago where one guest described a harrowing flight from Japan to Taiwan on Northwest during a typoon. He said Northwest offered passengers the option of staying in Japan and flying the next day or going on that evening's flight. This guy chose to fly that evening. Some of the caveats were there would be no service of any kind on the flight and no trips to the restroom. He described the flight as "very rough" and that a lot people were vomiting. This was maybe ten years ago, so maybe NWA has changed their policy on flying during typhoons.

I am flying DTW-NRT on NW 25 on Thursday (8/25), I hope. It seems like the typhoon is currently on-track toward KIX, but NRT is not that far away (for a typhoon course change, that is). I checked the NW Japan site and there was no information about weather waivers etc. It generally seems that it takes a lot for a Trans-Pacific flight to get canceled as the fairly full loads will cause a cascade of reaccomodation problems. (Not to mention that I am flying on the old M-fare upgrade with miles to/from NRT - and I would be worried about not being reaccomodated in Business if there was a cancellation).

That's assuming that the TPE-KIX aircraft is the same one used on the KIX-DTW flight....last time I flew this, it was a 757 on the TPE portion transferring to a 747 for the trans-Pacific flight even though it is the same number....besides, what are they going to do with those getting of at KIX? I'd be more than ticked to end up in DTW....and well US Customs would have NW's behind for flying Taiwanese that don't have visas to enter the US....I believe it's like a $10,000 fine per instance.

NW 69 and 70 are 744's all the way to TPE now... here's a web site that I use to check on typhoons in the asia pacific area...

Typhoon Tracker

KIX may be safe, but they have closed the bridge connecting the mainland to KIX a number of times. STUCK....on an island

Very Nice!
Thanks for the link.
Nice satellite weather view on the same site:


Asia Weather-Satellite View


any other favorites?

While not directly related to this Typhoon, I took a flight from TPA to IAH the same day a strong category I (weak category II) hurricane made landfall around the Louisiana/Texas coastline.

It hit the coastline in the morning and then went down to a borderline category I / Tropical Storm levels at the time of my flight departure. At the gate they weren't sure if my flight was a go or not, but it did go and we kept at an altitude of about 39k.

The flight was quite choppy and bumpy each time we would hit one of the "bands" - which were well defined & interesting to see by air - and it was a bit turbulant going into IAH. I would say the turbulance never got any worse than a couple bouts of borderline light/moderate turbulance (on the light side of moderate by "true definition") as we passed through the bands. We had a F-A-S-T drink service upon departure from TPA and then a quick clean-up. Once we did hit the turbulance the crew was strapped in for the remainder of the flight. The tubulance was enough to shake-up some pax; personally, I was expecting it to be worse, as I've flown through some true moderate to severe turbulance, once which required an aircraft to undergo maintanance checks upon arrival.

I had a long connection at IAH, during that time the storm was downgraded to a tropical depression. No problems on connection.

TheZipper: Thanks for the Typhoon tracking tool.

In closing, it's impressive what aircraft can fly though/over -- I honestly was expecting a no-go that day, the tubulance was much less than expected and at IAH there were very few cancellations and a handful of delayed flights on both the arrivals and departures board.

SDF_Traveler