When flying from USA to Europe, why can I only ever find overnight flights?
Question by AT: When flying from USA to Europe, why can I only ever find overnight flights?
I am from the UK but spend quite a lot of time in Florida for work.
One thing I’ve found when booking my flight back from the USA to Europe is that I can only ever find an overnight flight. It doesn’t matter how early in the day I am willing to depart from the States, the arrival time in London is always the following morning.
Personally, I’m someone who would rather spend the whole day travelling and be able to sleep off the jetlag with a full night’s rest, rather than arriving in the morning to sleep through (and wasting) that whole day.
So, my question is, what is the reasoning behind there being no same day arrival flights with any of the major airlines? I’m sure there must be some logic to it, but I’m stumped.
And just so you have the details, the flight from Florida to UK is about 8-9 hours long and the time difference is 5 hours ahead. So in theory if the flight was leaving the USA at 7am, it could quite easily arrive in Europe the same day. Even more so for shorter flights
Best answer:
Answer by Harold R
There are a few day flights, but they don’t make much sence. Connecting passengers dont have time to get to the airport, the plane has to leave early, and lands late in europe. Connections in europe are usually early in the morning, so arriving at 10pm is useless. Traffic the other way is busy late morning/afternoon, which means a perfect layover for flights arriving at say 10am. Just makes more business sence. For your question specifically, who would want to leave at 7am? After waking up, getting to the airport, customs, security, it would take all night!
What do you think? Answer below!
Airlines are concerned not just about your flight but the following flight(s) of the same equipment. Every hour the equipment is on the ground it is not making money for the airline. They want to maximize that aircraft is in the air AND make sure that aircraft departs and arrives at reasonable (market) times.
BA has some flights from JFK to LHR. this may help
Very few airlines offer day flights from the US to Europe because it makes little sense for them. The passengers have to arrive at the airport by 6 to catch the 8 am flight, which means they have to wake up, in same cases, by 4 in the morning. The flights also get in late, often at around 8-9 pm, which can be inconvenient for business travelers.
If you’re still looking into day flights, Air France and British Airways both offer a few from New York to Paris and London respectively. Otherwise, you’re out of luck =[
Hope this helps!
One of the airlines I worked for did have a day N.Y./London flight. It wasn’t too popular and I’m not sure if they still do it.
The problem is connections. Leaving early from Miami, most passengers from elsewhere couldn’t get to the airport in time. Many local airports have curfews so even catching the earliest flight wouldn’t cut it.
Miami was majority connecting passengers.
On the other end, connections are also the reason. If you arrive in the morning in London, you have all day to reach your destination. If a passenger misses their connection in London, the airline would end up putting them up in an expensive London hotel for the night and the person would not be happy either getting to his destination so late.
There is also a worldwide flow of traffic in general. Flights going between Asia and Europe, Asia and N. America, N. America and S. America, Australia and N. America, etc. and so on all leave in the same window of time. It has to do with connections and all sorts of other factors but it’s not just transatlantic flights which fit into a certain time frame.
If you think flying on those overnight flights is bad, try working them
Actually, it wasn’t such a big deal but I once kicked a busker (with an amplifier) off a Tube train on my way home from Heathrow. Another time someone decided to do construction next door the day I returned… Let’s just say you didn’t want to cross my path once I took off the make-up!