Flight Times
 

As an ex airline pilot I am confused about a flight I shall take this week.

When I booked it, the elapsed time was 11.50, and unfortunately I did not notice the aircraft in use. A week ago the airline, LH told me that due to a change of equipment the flight time would now be 13.50, and the aircraft is an A340-300. Using a ratio of those times to the Mach number that I use to fly on Boeings that flight time ratio leads to an Airbus A340-300 Mach number of 0.71.

Does it really fly at that speed, or is there something more in this? The airline documents still say that the flight is non stop, but I suspect they are going to put a tech stop in somewhere.

Confused of Cape Town.

Two hours extra seems unusually longer. When I use to fly the NAT Tracks to JFK, to be stuck behind a 340 was agony. ( 747 .86). I have not flown a 340 but I think they cruise around .82 The real problem is they climb like a Cessna 402 full of Pacific islanders. If your original booking was a 380 or a 747-8 I can see an hour difference but not two.

There are a lot of closed airspaces around the world. Say you’re flying to South Africa, the closure of Niamey FIR gives practically an extra flight hour.

Details of the route might have been helpful in establishing the reason(s).

When you fly, you'll probably notice if there's a tech stop. :O

Apologies for the lack of detail. The flight is CPT-FRA, so closed airspace may well be one issue, the cruise Mach of the 340 series the other.

Thank you for your inputs.