Promised flights that don't happen
 

In the past few months there've been many unusual aircraft at LHR & LGW, among others. For instance, from Vietnam we've seen Bamboo Airways, Air Vietnam A350s and B-787 10. These flights are predicted about a week in advance on spotters' forums.

Some predictions, however, don't come true. A Cubana IL-96 at Gatwick this week is the most recent I've noticed.

What's happening? I would guess that if an airline goes as far as booking a slot at Gatwick it has got a planeful of people or goods that have been paid for; aircraft, crew, all the necessary permissions. And if one planeful can be put on other flights, what's behind China Southern having a daily 777 flight to LHR that never happened?

Too many factors that would affect the outcomes of all the promised flights, but it's always prudent to have your bases covered in advance, and if things don't pan out, then there's only the fees of the landing slots etc to lose.

As to the China Southern flights, perhaps they have enough capacity already on their A380 flight and the other rotations already ? There won't be much passenger traffic between the UK and China at the moment, so it's all about cargo.

CSN's daily 777 was rumoured about a month ago. Their real, intended summer schedule had a daily A380 for passengers, but it is easy to guess why that isn't happening.