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Flight delays are a pain, no matter how you look at it. But while being annoyed over frequent flight delays used to be synonymous with US airtravel, this has now alarmingly spread across Asia. Or, to be more precise, China and Hong Kong. On a recent 9.20am flight from Chek Lap Kok to JFK, all looked promising with the plane parked at gate 4, which, as the pilot happily announced as we finished boarding, would ensure a quick taxi to the runway. Half an hour later, our pilot, now a little less happy, announced that pushback

would be delayed due to the airport being 'very busy'. When we finally pushed back and headed to the runway, almost an hour after schedule, there were still 13 planes in front of us in the take off queue, which meant another 20 minutes before we were finally airborne. While this type of delay is particularly annoying when you have a 16 hour flight ahead of you, it is even a greater inconvenience when the delay represents almost half the scheduled flying time of a 3 hour intra-regional flight. Unfortunately this type of delay has become a reality for far too many flights in and out of Hong Kong.

Will a new runway solve the delays?

With close to 60 million in passenger traffic in 2013, Hong Kong's airport is certainly bursting at the  seams, which is the type of evidence usually brought forward by people who are in favour of building a third runway at Chek Lap Kok, something that is hotly debated right now. If only it was so easy. "Hong Kong on a sunny day can just cope," a pilot friend of mine I questioned about the delay situation told me. "A few drops of rain though and the delays start," he said. I asked him whether he thought a third runway would ease the pain but he thinks not. "It's not the lack of runways that's the problem. It's the lack of airspace." So in other words, unless you somehow have a magic wand that enables you to build more airspace to handle the increased plane movements a third runway would bring, the situation will not improve.

Bring on the Big Planes

A much better way of coping with the overstretched airport could be to reduce the flight frequency by forcing airlines to use bigger planes to fly with less frequency. For example, Cathay Pacific currently flies eight non-stop flights a day to Singapore, typically all on 777's or A330's. While this is very convenient for frequent travelers there (like me), the same load could be achieved with flying, say, four times a day with A380s. It's less convenient, sure, but if the pay-off is schedule frequency versus increasingly annoying delays, I think I'd opt for the former - being able to rely on a schedule is far more valuable than being at the mercy of unpredictable delays. There would have to be some sort of regulation that the Airport Authority and (ultimately) the government would have to impose for airlines to comply though. But knowing how difficult it is to get any legislation approved in Hong Kong, I won't hold my breath.

The secret of airtavel in China: Stoicism

Of course, if you are a frequent flier to or within China, this will seem like peanuts to you. Delays within China are frequent and unpredictable, mainly due to the Chinese government (and the PLA) closing airspace on a whim, for anything from VIP flights to military exercises. On a recent trip to Shanghai, my flight got cancelled. My flight back was 30 minutes late and the flight scheduled before mine and after both got

Inner calm: Marcus Aurelius,
famous stoic philosopher

cancelled. So I guess I was lucky. A friend, on a recent flight back to Hong Kong from Wuhan, was not so lucky. His plane had already taxied halfway to the runway when it was suddenly announced that there would be a delay. Of three hours. Thankfully the entertainment system was switched on and the meal service started to pass the time, but I would not have wanted to be on that flight, either as passenger or as crew. According to some reports, airlines flying frequently in and out of China now provide special training to cabin crew to deal with passengers becoming irate because of delays. Perhaps they should also hand out a booklet about the benefits of stoicism to the passengers, at least until Xi Jinping tackles this particular issue. After he so successfully outlawed expensive gift giving and lavish banquets, let's hope the issue of flight delays is also on his agenda.