Re: General Cathay Pacific Delays/Cancellations/etc. Discussion
Had a wonderful arrival into Manila two weeks ago on CX913 HKG-MNL.
It was the night of a torrential storm in Manila city proper which flooded the streets and clogged the roads.
We departed HKG on schedule and then about 15 minutes before an early arrival into MNL, the captain advised that we would be holding and the MNL ATC could not give us any indication of an expected landing time. We were NO 1 in the holding pattern. About 15 minutes later he advised that ATC still could give no indication and he would soon be considering an alternate.
About 5 minutes later he commenced his approach into MNL and landed.
Once we had cleared the runway, we processed on the taxiway towards T3 and came to a stop. I heard the engines shutdown. The captain advised that there were no available gates, as the earlier flights couldn't depart due to the same weather stopping us from landing. We were No 4 in the queue to get to a terminal gate. ATC could not provide a timeframe.
In the end we got the the terminal gate one hour later than scheduled. Really, all of the delay happened in the last 20 miles.
Immigration, baggage collection and customs all went to schedule. Once I contact my driver he was still another 90 minutes away as he too was stuck in the traffic.
Eventually at 1am, I met the driver and we loaded up. A further 45 minutes to get out of the road from T3.
From a nice easy planned 1030pm arrival + 15 minutes car ride to my hotel...i eventually got to be at 3:13am.
It's more fun in the PHilippines - enjoy the adversity.
Alby