I have some questions about a diversion that took place on March 4 for Delta 3508, originally scheduled to fly from DTW to IAH, but diverted to OKC. My brother in law was on the flight.
https://flightaware.com/live/flight/.../KOKC/tracklog
The schedule flight time is listed as 3:23. Flightaware shows time in the air, on another flight that completed normally, as around 2:40. This flight was on a CRJ-900LR. The diverted flight was on a CRJ-900ER.
In comparing the diverted flight with a normal one, I saw that both aircraft completed their climbs to FL360 / FL340 in about 25 minutes. The normal flight had a level cruise speed averaging 400 knots, which it maintained for about 1:50. But the diverted flight had a level cruise speed of 320 knots.
The track log showed that the diversion took place after 25 minutes of level cruise.
By my calculations, the 80 knot difference in cruise speed would have taken the diverted flight an additional 30 minutes in for the 730nm cruise part of the flight, plus additional time during the climb and descent.
The normal flight took a track of 227 degrees to IAH for much of the cruise phase. I noticed that the diverted flight took a more Westerly path on a heading of 250 degrees from the get go. Flightaware does show a broad area of weather down South that day.
How much fuel reserve is such a flight likely to take? Might destination weather have been a factor in the decision to divert, which was taken only 25 minutes into the cruise portion of this 3 hour flight? Might other factors have been at play?