In a separate post, I shared some thoughts on our China Airlines A350 business class flight from Phoenix (PHX) to Taipei (TPE). In this post, I’d like to discuss one other thing about the flight that was remarkable — just how early we arrived!
In this post:
My earliest flight arrival in over a decade!
Airline schedule planning is of course a complex process, given how many variables there are that can impact operations. We’re talking everything from winds, to airport congestion, to air traffic control delays, and more.
Airlines often add a bit of padding to their schedule, since they don’t want to be late, both for the purposes of having good on-time statistics, and also in order to run a reliable operation, and minimize the number of people missing connections.
Anyway, our Phoenix to Taipei flight had a scheduled block time of 15hr20min. I was a bit surprised when we boarded, and the captain announced that our flight time would be 13hr50min, a full 90 minutes shorter than the scheduled block time. Okay, there’s always things that can go wrong, so I wondered if we’d actually make such good time.
Well, we left exactly on schedule, had a short taxi, and were airborne within 10 minutes of our scheduled departure time.
Then the flight time was in fact 13hr50min, as predicted, and we touched down 80 minutes ahead of our scheduled arrival time. We had a five minute taxi to our arrival gate (I was worried that might not be available, given how early we were!), and pulled in 75 minutes early.
Immigration and customs was a breeze, and we were in our hotel room in Taipei before our flight was even scheduled to arrive (and it’s quite a trek from TPE to the city!).
The Pacific is known for its strong jet stream, especially in winter. The winds just seemed to be especially light on the day we were flying, and that also made for a very smooth flight. Funny enough, our flight was the fastest since the route launched a few months ago.
The longest flight time has been 15hr20min, and the shortest flight time (aside from ours) has otherwise been 14hr4min.
What’s your record for earliest flight arrival?
Thinking back to my millions of miles of flying, I can only think of one other time I had a flight arrive well over an hour before the scheduled arrival time.
Around 14 years ago I remember flying American from Shanghai to Los Angeles on a 777. We had absolutely wild tail winds, and the flight time was under 10 hours, and we ended up touching down a little under two hours ahead of schedule. So I think that remains my record, but I can’t say with certainty exactly how early we arrived at the gate. Either way, nothing has come close to these two flights for me, in that regard.
So I’m curious to hear from others in the OMAAT community… what’s the earliest you’ve ever had a flight arrive? I have to imagine that most of the “records” in this regard have to be across the Pacific, simply given the extent to which the jet stream can impact flight times. You’re only going to arrive super early if you have a minimal jet stream going west, or a very strong jet stream going east.
Bottom line
It’s always nice when flights arrive on-time, but an arrival 75 minutes ahead of schedule isn’t something you often see… yet that’s exactly what happened on our China Airlines flight from Phoenix to Taipei.
We benefited from a strong jet stream, with the 15hr20min block time flight actually taking 13hr50min. It’s the shortest flight time there has been since the route launched, and we were happy to be at our hotel before the flight was even scheduled to land.
What’s your record for earliest flight arrival?
My flight from SFO to TPE on Starlux arrived at 348AM when it was scheduled to arrive at 515AM...great and all but the MTR wasn't open so I had to take a bus to get to downtown Taipei
AS usually has BOS-SFO blocked at 6:35 air time in the summer, but this particular flight I was on in June 2021 actually took 5:33 with short taxi on either end, and so arrived at the gate 68 minutes early.
My record is a 26 min earlier, but on a 55 min flight lol
It was a holiday and only like 10 passengers on a 737.
We were on a Norse Atlantic flight from JFK to London Gatwick about a year ago. Not sure how much shorter the flight was than it’s blocked time but it was way early (90ish minutes)
DH used his speedometer app on his phone and said that he didn’t think he had ever gone that fast on anything ever.
Back in 1999, I was in Manhattan and had a flight on TAP to Lisbon that was scheduled to depart at 6:00 pm. The problem was Hurricane Floyd was bearing down on New York City and predicted to hit at -- yup! -- 6:00 pm.. Then-Mayor Giuliani was encouraging employers to start sending employees home around noon to avoid tie-ups on the expressways. I had booked a shuttle to the airport, which was cancelled. I...
Back in 1999, I was in Manhattan and had a flight on TAP to Lisbon that was scheduled to depart at 6:00 pm. The problem was Hurricane Floyd was bearing down on New York City and predicted to hit at -- yup! -- 6:00 pm.. Then-Mayor Giuliani was encouraging employers to start sending employees home around noon to avoid tie-ups on the expressways. I had booked a shuttle to the airport, which was cancelled. I eventually got to JFK at 4:00 pm and looked at the monitors: out of the 52 flights displayed on four television screens over by the Delta ticket counter, 48 said "CANCELLED." Mine read "On Time." The terminal looked deserted; the only things open were Starbucks and a bar. Period. I look out the window at the rain coming down in buckets and see an El Al jet taking off. This was followed ten minutes later by an Aeroflot plane...and sure enough, TAP pulled away from the gate spot on 6:00 pm. It was the first time I ever felt turbulence while still on the ground...but we took off and with such a tail wind that we landed well over an hour ahead of schedule -- so early that we stayed on the plane while they scrambled to find a set of stairs and a hard stand. Then we couldn't deplane until they rounded up some buses to take us to the terminal. When we finally got to the terminal, there was no one at Passport Control or Customs...no shops in the airport was open, no cabs were waiting to take driving passengers into town. I just grabbed my luggage and started walking...
Hah! Just imagine if your beloved LH had done that, Ben - as Aussie comedienne Pam-Ann once said:
“Lufthansa was due to arrive at 7pm. At 6.50pm, they’re up there hovering. At 7pm? LAND!! VEE HAFF A SCHEDULE!!”
Many years ago - before airline mobile apps and ubiquitious mobile phones, my mother flew from NY (probably White Plains) to PDX to visit me. I arrived at the airport nearly an hour early to pick her up and went to her gate (yes, before 9/11) and there was no evidence of her plane. It wasn't on the board at the gate. It wasn't on the display board. I found an agent - by this...
Many years ago - before airline mobile apps and ubiquitious mobile phones, my mother flew from NY (probably White Plains) to PDX to visit me. I arrived at the airport nearly an hour early to pick her up and went to her gate (yes, before 9/11) and there was no evidence of her plane. It wasn't on the board at the gate. It wasn't on the display board. I found an agent - by this time the Delta station at PDX was tiny, well past the hub days - and they said the plane had landed over an hour ago. I found my mom waiting downstairs in arrivals. Keep in mind that DL uses very generous blocks... but still, this plane must have been 90 minutes early due to weak headwinds.
I was on an ORD-LHR BA flight that arrived 75 min early due to strong tailwinds. I was in F so a little miffed about the shorter flight. But then again it was BA F so I wasn’t missing much.
Alaska usually blocks BOS-SEA at about 6:30 in the winter. February 2024 we had no headwind to speak of and the flight time was 5:08. I had my checked bag and took a 40 minute ride home, and walked inside one minute before our scheduled gate arrival
"We benefited from a strong jet stream"
Wouldn't you have benefitted from a weak jet stream flying west? The jet stream goes west to east which is why returning from Asia to the West coast is always several hours shorter
Did BOS-MUC with LH in F last year. Flight was delayed by roughly 2 hours. Massive tailwinds made sure the flight was just 6 hrs – which meant 2 hrs of sleep given full meals : -(
What time did your economy passengers arrive?
Flight arrives early= our arrival gate is currently occupied...
United on LHR => SFO in 2017, an electrical outage was starting right after we pushed back & we got immediate runway clearance for takeoff. Landed at SFO 1:55 pm for a 3:20 pm scheduled arrival
Mine was similar to @Anijak.
Singapore to Melbourne, Australia on SQ in 2018. Can't recall the flight number. Got into Melbourne over one and half hours early.
I was once on a 1-hour flight that landed 45 min early. We left 30 min ahead of schedule because all the passengers showed up early - I didn’t know they could do that.
BA from TXL to LHR/LCY often used to depart 20 minutes early.
I was on a fully booked A320 recently that departed 45 minutes early. The incoming aircraft arrived ahead of schedule and the turn around including offloading passengers and bags, cleaning and catering was done in 30 minutes. Arrived at our destination 50 minutes ahead of schedule. The normal block time was 3 hrs 15 mins.
Something might be up with the winds flying west although not sure how far TPAC this impacts.
Check out some flight times on JFK LAX Wednesday and Thursday this week. Westbound and eastbound have nearly the same flight time
AA had a flight out of LAX that was scheduled a bit over 4 hours heading east. The same plane then flew back to LAX with just over 5 hours scheduled. The eastbound plane left on time, but arrived an hour late. We boarded/departed the westbound leg an hour late. We landed at LAX looking like we'd actually be at the gate as originally scheduled. The very unusual heavily westbound winds delayed the eastbound and...
AA had a flight out of LAX that was scheduled a bit over 4 hours heading east. The same plane then flew back to LAX with just over 5 hours scheduled. The eastbound plane left on time, but arrived an hour late. We boarded/departed the westbound leg an hour late. We landed at LAX looking like we'd actually be at the gate as originally scheduled. The very unusual heavily westbound winds delayed the eastbound and helped the westbound by an hour each way. Unfortunately, those same winds required LAX planes to take off/land in the far-less-common direction. This causes taxiing delays. And, after a long time heading to our gate, we had to stop and wait for our gate to free up. AA very kindly had someone at the arrival gate to let me know I needed to hurry to Bradley for my Australia flight (though I, of course, was well aware of it). I think this wasn't long after you could finally go from AA domestic to Bradley within the security zone. I was flying Y, so good on ya AA.
I just knew you’d be on here boasting about your journeys Down Under… interesting for someone whose “homeport” is CMH. How ‘bout that new terminal… 2029!
Over the years Airlines have padded out flight times to improve their ontime performance.
Not so great when you arrive an hour earlier than scheduled....then have to wait for your pick up....who arrives 5-10 minutes before scheduled arrival!
In 1998 I took a Northwest 744 from SEL to DTW. Got some major tailwinds over the Pacific and got into Detroit over an hour early. Unfortunately we then had to sit in the plane for 45 minutes because we were the first scheduled international arrival of they day and Immigration and Customs were not set to open until 15 minutes before our original scheduled arrival time.
Last month my FRA-ORD on United was 64 minutes early, and last September my NRT-DEN on United was 65 minutes early. Those are the two earliest arrivals that I can recall.
I was 65 minutes early on a DFW-EWR flight.
The Saturday before the big storm in NYC my delta flight back to sf took over 7 hours flight time. The opposite was taking around 4 hours and 20 if I remember mover correctly. That’s pretty wild I’ll say.
Singapore to Melbourne on lightly loaded SIA 747-200. Arrived so early due tail wind that I was through customs and waiting to be picked up over an hour before scheduled arrival time!
AC YVR-SIN, almost 2 hours less than scheduled.
They delayed YVR departure by about an hour as the plane would be way too early in SIN otherwise.
There’s not really such thing as a “real” flight time vs padded. What would the “real” one be; shortest departure and arrival vectors and closest gate to the runway on both sides? My point is, I don’t think it’s “padding” so much as an estimation of the average time. Besides getting the door closed on time, there’s not much else in the airline’s control.
By taking the average time and adding 30 minutes, the proportion of flights recorded as arriving on time is significantly higher.
The downside is lower utilisation of aircraft.
So airlines balance between.
many years ago but took a CX flight SFO HKG that arrived ~95 minutes early into HKG
(this is not too uncommon: check out the CX893 that reached HKG 1h13m early this week!)
One hour early NRT to LAX on a 787-9 last year. I was still full from the first meal and they started serving the pre-arrival breakfast.
A domestic flight in China, two tour groups were the only passengers with reservations on the flight, when everyone was checked in and through security, the flight boarded two hours early, took off and arrived two hours early.
What happens to flights going in the opposite direction? Do they just arrive terribly late or do they take a slightly different route?
They’re just blocked for longer times.
Back in September I had a Delta flight JFK-LHR that ended up being basically 5 hours on the nose. The captain came on to say it was his personal record and one of the fastest he'd ever heard of for that route, thanks to crazy tail winds. The downside was I didn't sleep at all and we had to wait for close to an hour for a gate to open, since we had arrive a full hour early.
Yeah that’s almost a negative. Especially considering how early American turns on the lights for breakfast.
I think my record on that route was about 4hrs50 and it was very bumpy.
I’ve also had to circle LHR because they’ve arrived before curfew ends
Ok maybe I am misremembering about a sub-5 hour time because this suggests that the record is 4:56 from 2020.
https://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/world-records/601621-fastest-subsonic-transatlantic-commercial-flight
Possibly I’m confusing my memories with a BOS-LHR flight
About an hour early MAD-DFW.
Did you hit Centurion or Chase in PHX?
I'm not sure how early we were but once did an eastbound TPAC, don't remember exact route maybe PEK-SFO. Probably a 777. United flight, they had seat back monitors showing ground speed, at one point it got up to 770mph. That's a good tailwind for sure.
The closest I’ve come is having my flight delayed at SIN because an on time departure would’ve meant arriving during the curfew at SYD. If I remember correctly boarding was delayed more than an hour but we arrived on time.
I think I've had a couple International flights arrive about an hour early. Winds on an International flight can really speed up the flight. Domestic probably 35 minutes early.