It is not always a problem with the aircraft that causes delays. Whilst often it is a case of technical difficulties, but this time it wasn't.
We are missing a passenger.
Yep, on a plane that carries 301 passengers, we were missing the one. And because they have not made the boarding cutoff, their baggage has to be offloaded. Since there are 300 other bags to sort through, it will take time.
Scheduled departure time 8:45, an announcement about the offloading at 8:35, it's now 8:50. Ok, now we're closing the front door. Let's see what happens now.
8:52, the captain says we're sorted, but...
Oh, the dreaded we've missed our slot and now have wait for the next. Last time that happened, in France, we waited an hour. This is Brisbane, not so large an airport so it may not be long.
9:01, we're pushing back. Finally a slot.
But...
There are five other planes in front of us, so it's all adding up to a delayed arrival. 9:15 and still taxiing.
9:30, 45 minutes late we finally take off. Let's see how this affects our arrival time. The flight time is advised to be 2 hours and 25 minutes. This means if the flying time is correct, we should be landing in Auckland at 13:55 pm, local time. New Zealand is, by the way, two hours ahead of Brisbane.
11:45, (or 13:45 local time) we commence our descent. Landed at 14:10 local time.
It could have been worse.
What am I saying, we have now to negotiate immigration and baggage!
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