Ordinary Gweilo

Last year I highlighted the appalling delays on flights between Shanghai and Hong Kong, but things have improved – as the SCMP belatedly reports

Authorities give Cathay Shanghai connections a lift

Surprise boost to air traffic flow shows what officials can achieve with determination, says airline chief

Anita Lam
Jun 29, 2011

The number of on-time Cathay Pacific  flights between Hong Kong and Shanghai has risen more than sixfold in the past seven months after mainland authorities introduced a new air traffic control policy, the airline's chief executive said yesterday.

At a lunch to lobby support for Hong Kong International Airport building a third runway, John Slosar said the improvement illustrated how efficient mainland officials could be when they put their minds to resolving important issues – such as freeing up the mainland's congested airspace.

"One day in November, I was looking at the on-time performance rate for China, and it suddenly went way up, to 65 per cent. A few months earlier it would have been 10 per cent," he said.

"China is interesting in that way: they don't tell us about things [beforehand] – they just happen."

I can’t imagine why Slosar thinks that the change happened in November.  If so, why were things still bad in early-December?   Of course, you might think that the SCMP would have their reporters covering the story and know when things improved…