"Singapore has one of the highest occurrences of lightning activity in the world. Situated close to the Equator, the warm and humid tropical conditions are highly favourable for the development of thunderstorms. Thunderstorms produce lightning, and in severe cases, are accompanied by heavy rain and gusty winds. ...

On average, Singapore experiences 168 thunderstorm days per year. This refers to the number of days in which thunder is heard over Singapore, and gives an indication of lightning activity (as thunderstorms are associated with lightning). The monthly distribution of mean thunderstorm days as recorded at the climate station at Changi is shown below. More thunderstorm days are observed during the Inter-Monsoon months of April and May and October and November. The months of January and February in the later phase of the Northeast monsoon experience the least number of thunderstorm days."


Tropical - with its own set of weather challenges, thinderstorm-dodging and all. Flying over monsoon India can't be easy for the flight block planners.

Even Via rail gives refunds when they are late (as evidenced in another thread on the Aeroplan board).

JR rail in Japan refunds limited express charges should a train ever be 2 hours late. I have collected on it (blizzard stranded the train). No mailing it in, just go to the ticket window and get your money back in cash. None of this Italian mail nonsense.

Various rail companies in Japan will give you some kind of document if a train is late so you can show it to your employer (IE if someone queries why you are late to work).

Imagine the volume of paper AC would use in a year if they had to give out paper documents any time a plane was say one hour late.

since I live in Singapore I will mention that most of those 168 thunderstorm days the storm blows over quickly. Usually within an hour in any specific location.

i guess my larger point is that Singapore and its nearby airspace are subjected to the whims - storms and all - of the ITCZ, which would impact flight paths and flight times on a more or less year long basis. I suspect SQ overcomes that by padding its block times.

It is easier to do that with one hub.

Every eastbound flight I've taken over the past three months has arrived at least a half-hour earlier than scheduled, if not more ex-LAX/SFO/YVR. As noted, this leads to longer than normal flight times heading west (even it is over the pole, or a westerly NAmerican/easterly Russia/Asia coastal crossing.

I would not know. Via does not fly to my side of the woods. But yes, it's a good thing.

How would adjusting schedules to reflect longer flights mess up childcare arrangements more than actually being late?

Exactly. It also would help on connections..If they keep saying a flight is scheduled to arrive at 15:00, yet it always arrives at 16:00, surely that would be of interest to anyone..people making connecting flights, people checking into hotels, people on business trips.

It's not like the old paper days where schedules were printed for the entire season or 1/2 year. Change them to reflect reality if necessary.

The slot situation has not changed however.

I meant if they changed the time one needed to start. If I was a FA for any company I would have a wide berth on any return times.

Agreed. But my original point was in over 30 days, the flight has not arrived once on time. The scheduled arrival time does not reflect reality for the pax on the flight.

What's funny is AC sells flights with connections of just over an hour at HKG.

So here's a data point that I found interesting. In 2 years of flying the YYZ-YVR-NRT route, I've had an occasional delay ex-NRT due to congestion on the taxiways, but I've never had ALL FOUR flights on a single trip delayed.

AC 153 was delayed an hour due to late inbound international aircraft

AC 3 was delayed 2 hours due to late inbound international aircraft

AC 4 was delayed twice for a total of an hour. First was late inbound AC 3. Then we sat on the taxi way (while NRT airport ground crew drove up and down inspecting the runway. Kind of cool to watch but still)

AC 102 was delayed for idiocy: 40-50 pax were stuck in line at the security checkpoint. Apparently CATSA decided not to have enough screening lanes open

I felt really bad for all those people at the YVR gate for AC 3 who knew they would miss their onward Asia connections. Same with some on AC 4 who would miss their domestic.

I recently had all four flights on YYZ-YVR-PVG delayed/cancelled.

AC103 went mech, cancelled, was put on AC100 and overnighted in YVR.

Next day AC25 diverted to ANC due to medical emergency, delayed for 2 hours.

AC26 was delayed by 1 hour due to late inbound, delayed boarding. And my flight to SHA was late by 5 hours, landed only 2 hours before AC26 departure.

AC100 was late for 30 minute due to crew being late. It was switched from A321 to B789 so different crew members were required.

And I recall in another Asia trip, I had all four flights delayed due to de-icing, de-icing, late inbound due to de-icing, waiting for gate at YYZ and frozen aircraft doors.