Last night, Melanie and I returned from Hong Kong. Had a great great time in Hong Kong! Our flight was supposed to depart from HKG at 7:30PM, for an arrival around 10:30-10:50PM.
When we got to the airport, we noticed the flight was delayed to 8:10PM – we later found out, according to the pilot, the plane was late getting out of Shanghai due to weather. This was fine as we could spend a bit more time in this great airport.
We eventually board the plane, but then the pilot gets on the intercom and tells us due to bad weather in Beijing, we’re not sure what time we can take off – we have to join some sort of “queue”. Yes, I confirmed with some friends in Beijing that it was raining pretty hard.
An aside: my flight from Beijing to Hong Kong landed during a category T3 storm on wednesday, so I don’t know what all the commotion is!
Long story short (ok, there isn’t much more left to the story!), we finally took off around 10:15PM (2.75 hours late) and landed 1:20AM. Then we had to endure the horrendously inefficient and horribly designed new-Terminal 3.
Weather Gods
It seems to me, and several of my other friends in Beijing, that it’s been raining a heck of a lot more this season than it has in the past years. And, like automobile drivers, pilots and air traffic controls don’t seem to know what to do when it rains. (In fairness, rain in Beijing is a bit of an abnormal phenomenon, so it does catch us all off guard a bit).
Could it be the powers that be are causing it to rain a bit more than usual to help in the cleanup effort of the city before the Olympics? Who knows. But it is something interesting to think about.
I have the best luck traveling
This is the 3rd time in as much as a month that my flight, TO Beijing, has been delayed due to Weather.
- Shanghai Hongqiao to Beijing: Saturday, May 31- Original departure time: 9:55PM; actual ~11:15PM
- Qingdao to Beijing: Friday, June 20 – Original departure time: 9:25PM; actual ~11:30PM
- Hong Kong to Beijing: Monday, June 30 – Original departure time: 7:30PM; actual 10:15PM
My good friend, Dr. Bushwacker, was flying back from Shanghai Hongqiao last week, also an evening flight – his flight was delayed and delayed, until finally they canceled it and rescheduled him for the following day.
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July 1st, 2008 at 11:03 am
[...] Chris wrote an interesting post today on Beijing weather getting annoying. Here’s a quick excerpt: [...]
July 1st, 2008 at 2:13 pm
[...] Beijing weather getting annoying [...]
July 1st, 2008 at 3:45 pm
Ha! New airport and I guess they forgot to put in a CAT3 ILS? Planes can land in rain, and I don’t recall any thunder last night (at least in Chaoyang). Why they have so many problems with an airport without any crossing runways is beyond me, but they should send some observers to O’Hare to see how to handle traffic. I think it all goes back to ‘flow’ that seems to be so mysterious here with car drivers and people walking on sidewalks.
July 1st, 2008 at 11:48 pm
Yes T3 has gone to shits. In the second half of last year I flew at least once a month and never any delays to/from T2. Yet another example of 80/20 the wrong way around. And weather is just compounding this. I could add another two flights this week to your running list of delayed flights. HoweverI don’t really think it’s the weather most of the time either. It’s a very convenient excuse to blame the weather or even Beijing (aside, flying first class on UA means you get first class ignorant y–ks. Oh that’s for another story).
The real reason for all these delays is that the local ground & air control are inept at responding to and adjusting to things out of the norm. Adjusting schedules, pulling things in, making decisions based on information at hand – don’t even ask for this. But really, would you trust them if they did this?
Sigh..love & hate. Such is this city. Hey ranting on this blog has made me feel somewhat better. Not as good as wings and beer. But better none the less. Cheers!
July 2nd, 2008 at 8:10 am
I’ve wondered too if all this rain is completely natural. I’m so curious to see what happens to the air on July 20, which presumably is when most of the Olympic action should start up.
And I’m flying to Hong Kong next week so thanks for the heads up, I’ll be prepared for possible delays.
July 4th, 2008 at 10:32 am
[...] of T3 a couple of times now and seems quite happy with it. Still, in the interests of fairness, not everybody is as impressed with T3 as I was. But I liked what I saw. Posted in life in Beijing [...]
July 4th, 2008 at 10:23 pm
Frankly, I do not know why anyone complains about a 1-2 hours delay, only. That is sipmly “standard”, in China.
Friday last week, I was book on a CA-flight for departure 18:00 from Shanghai to Beijing. We boarded at about 19:00, and then I could watch two full movies in the plane, till we took of at about midnight, I could watch a third movie, and we arrived in BeJi at 02:30. – In total about the same time as from Europe to China, but only one meal served.
A few weeks ago the same from Shenzhen to Beji, 2h delay before boarding, and then more than 4 hours in the plane on groud, but WITH AIRCON switched OFF! – I like sauna, but not for 4 hours and sharing it with 200 people.
July 5th, 2008 at 8:07 am
Gerhard, I am slowing beginning to accept 2 hours as normal. My same friend I mentioned above who had issues SHA to PEK a couple of weeks ago had a similar experience last night, except this time, Xi’an to Beijing – also, on the plane for several hours, then flight canceled. !!
July 6th, 2008 at 10:14 pm
So it’s not just my luck then…in fact I feel reasonably fortunate after reading some of the tales of woe! Yesterday flying from Shenzhen the official reason for a 3-hour delay (thankfully before boarding) varied between “adverse weather conditions” to “the delay is due to the delay of the aircraft [sic]” It’s difficult to believe what really happens…apparently a Shanghai to BJ flight was hit so badly by turbulence that it had to divert to Tianjin – yet my flight around the same time was very smooth. T3 needs to get itself together very soon though;even a simple thing like getting a shuttle bus into the city can be made to feel like a desperate attempt to get out of town before the typhoon hits, with people jostling for tickets (no queues in China of course) and overwhelming a ticket girl who was using a baggage trolley as a desk. A final funny note…the shuttle bus driver from Shenzhen city to the airport actually managed to get lost on the way. turning a 40-minute trip into a trip that lasted over 2 hours. So you never know; in future a delay may be announced “due to the late arrival of the shuttle bus”…
November 1st, 2008 at 10:21 am
check Danielles website http://www.daniellerenee.com she doesn’t seem to be able to make it over here but maybe in bejing or hong kong? I remember years ago that there were singers that couldn’t make it in america and they made it big in europe. just a thought. maybe the orient is america friendly artwise if not politically. ppg
November 1st, 2008 at 6:46 pm
there seems to be two daniellerenees out there, our girl is http://www.cdbaby.com ppg