Arrival times

[Tord Hoppe]

@ Jesper: "Of course one can start slowing down below normal cruise speed, but I doubt very many will do that, which was the reason for my initial post."

Hmm, this actually raises an interesting real world question. For most airlines I can imagine that the timetable is very tight with for instance new
crews to an airframe that has just landed. I´d imagine that any early arrivals actually would generate cost and/or problems. For instance, what´s to
say that there are available stands on the airport if you arrive too early? The airframe would just stand still and not generate revenue while waiting
for the next scheduled departure.
If a long flight would encounter unexpected tailwinds and "risk" being early at the destination I wouldn´t be too surprised if the company dispatch
center orders a slower speed to meet the schedule. That would mean less fuel used = increased profit for the company. The company has nothing to gain
by an early arrival and while some pax will be happy, others will just have that more time to wait for extensions and such as has been mentioned before.
Just guessing though...