Beijing thunderstorms return China Eastern’s flight MU5331 twice to Shanghai, taking 17 hours to get back to its origin

Flight MU5331 by China Eastern Airlines made two failed attempts to reach Beijing from Shanghai, turned back each time by extreme weather in the Chinese capital

Chinese airports and airlines have frequently ranked as among the least reliable in taking off on time, according to aviation surveys

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An Airbus A330-200 aircraft carrying the livery of China Eastern Airlines, landing at Vancouver International airport on June 18, 2017. Photo: Handout

Published: 9:15pm, 30 Jul 2019Updated: 10:48pm, 30 Jul 2019

A Beijing-bound flight from Shanghai landed at its origin more than 17 hours after the journey began, as severe thunderstorms at its destination forced the aircraft to turn back twice.

Flight MU5331 on an Airbus A330-300 aircraft flown by China Eastern Airlines took off from Shanghai’s Hongqiao airport at 2:11am on Monday after a five-hour delay, bound for the Chinese capital. The commuter service, carrying 250 passengers, was delayed due to inclement weather in Beijing, which reduced the Capital International Airport’s navigability to less than 50 per cent, forcing more than 400 flights to be cancelled.

About 100km from its destination, MU5331 made a U-turn and returned to Shanghai, landing at Pudong airport on the eastern side of the city across the Huangpu River at 4:59am, according to data provided by Umetrip, a mobile application that provides flight information.

Six hours later, the flight took off again at 11:13am for Beijing, but was turned back a second time due to a thunderstorm warning, landing back at Hongqiao at 2:26pm on Monday, more than 17 hours after the journey began.

Chinese airlines and airfields frequently rank among the world’s least reliable for being on time, as severe constraints in capacity and aggressive management by air traffic control – the air space is shared by the civilian aviation authority and the air force – often wreck havoc on schedules. But flight MU5331 was an extreme example.

“Passengers can blame the extreme weather” for the service disruption, said Zheng Honggang, the chief executive of Shanghai-based Kate Travel, echoing a statement issued by the carrier based in the same city. “But air traffic control that causes frequent flight delays on the Chinese mainland often provokes ire among passengers.”

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