When you fly to Europe, it’s almost always overnight. That’s why a flat bed and sleep amenities are so desirable in business class. From the East Coast the flights are relatively short, so you want to get on the plane and get to sleep right away. Sometimes you’ll have a shower in an arrivals lounge when you land, then head off to the office.
There are a handful of daytime flights to Europe. Daytime transatlantic crossings are almost all between the United States and London Heathrow. There are a few others, like Avianca Bogotá to Madrid and Turkish from New York JFK to Istanbul. Delta ran a daytime flight transatlantic to Paris for about seven months in 2024.
If you don’t want to require a ‘transatlantic’ flight to mean crossing the entirety of the Atlantic from one side to another you might count Air Saint Pierre has service on a 737 to Paris and maybe you want to count United’s Newark – Nuuk service as well as Icelandair flights. But those don’t usually count.
These flights can be great – leave in the morning, land the same day, go to your hotel and get some sleep there – although they’re not to everyone’s taste.
However, there are currently no Westbound transatlantic redeyes – overnight flights from Europe to the U.S.. That changes this winter, as Iberia re-times its Madrid – Dallas flight.
It’s currently a tradition afternoon departure from Europe arriving in Dallas in the evening. But starting October 28 both directions will be redeyes on an Airbus A330.
The flight operates four times weekly in winter and daily for the summer schedule.
DFW Airport
While I do like the idea for connections from some European destinations to Madrid, and potentially beyond Dallas on arrival, this seems like a tough flight to take if you’re in and out of Madrid. Say you get late checkout at your hotel of 4 p.m. and then have 9 hours still before your flight departs? For many this will mean an extra night of hotel, rather than flying overnight and saving on the room.
It’ll be interesting to see whether this is popular enough to return for the winter 2026-2027 season.
(HT: @joelflyer)