On Shanghai -Hongkong flight, KA801 scheduled departure is 1720H and KA891 is 1820H. Yesterday, KA800 from HK to Shanghai was late in its departure by 3.5 hours. However. instead of KA 801 return flight consequently delayed by 3.5 hours, there has been a switch of plane such that KA 801 was late in its departure by 1 hour flying at 1820H, and KA 891 delayed by 2.5 hours using the KA800 plane.
for insiders in the airline industry, what could have been behind such a switch?
1) is it better to inconvenient 2 planeload of passengers (was fully booked and if we assume 300 passengers each) 600 people with 300 on 1 hour delay and 300 on 2.5 hour delay, than have only 300 people delayed by 3.5 hours while 300 fly out on time on their scheduled time and plane? is there any psychology study that would possibly indicate that passengers can tolerate less than 3 hour delay without raising big fuss of it?
2) could it be that lots of KA801 passengers have connecting flights out of HK such that it may cost Dragonair significant expense if they are to missed out of their connecting flights? I notice that for the standby list, some KA 891 with connecting flights are the first priority to be squeezed into the KA801 flight ahead of Marco Polo club members.
i'm interested to hear your views.