AC33 Today 25/9/14

[Ryan N]

I returned to SYD today on AC33. We took what seemed like an unusually north flight path. Instead of flying straight across the Pacific, it looked like we flew in a more northerly direction, way over Hawaii, towards the Solomons, and skirted the eastern seaboard over the Sunshine Coast, Brisbane and NSW east coast.

Is it normal?

[Grahame Hutchison]

Ryan, this is the track your aircraft took this morning (Left), compared to the Great Circle route from Vancouver (Right). Not that different through to the equator, but progressively more northerly
from the equator south. The weather might have been the reason, looks a little dirty north of New Caledonia, and there was weather all along the eastern seaboard this morning. The Air Canada
AC33 track has moved progressively northward over the past few services.

http://www.16right.com/MessageBoard/AC33 20140925 A.jpg http://www.16right.com/MessageBoard/AC33 20140925 B.jpg
http://www.16right.com/MessageBoard/AC33 20140925 C.jpg

This was the track on the 14th September, which is probably more normal.
http://www.16right.com/MessageBoard/AC33 20140925 D.jpg

[Ryan N]

Thanks Grahame. The flight overall was quite smooth, but yes, it got a bit bumpy over the Pacific Islands. The different flight path still meant that my flight was ahead of schedule, but the early arrival was more than wiped out by the long queues at immigration, but that's another topic altogether!!!

[Adam W]

Not just Air Canada but most of the Trans Pacific flights have been going that way lately. Last week I came in on QF12 and we came in a fair way north, about 2 hours out of Sydney we were looking out at a fair bit of lightning.