Breakfast in America, Dinner in Europe: All Eastbound Daytime Transatlantic Flights

Flying from Europe to North America and back almost exclusively follows the same pattern: A long daytime flight from Europe to the United States and a shorter red-eye (=overnight flight) when coming back. Due to the time difference sometimes being larger than the actual flight time, the inbounds can be extremely exhausting. Even in business class, there is simply not enough time to get adequate sleep.

However, there is a way to circumvent that ordeal. Did you know that there are actually eighteen eastbound flights, that cross the Atlantic Ocean during the day? Before researching this piece, we knew that there were some, but we were surprised to learn how many. Henceforth, this list: With these flights, you’ll start early in the morning in America and are in Europe after sunset.

What Advantages Come with A Daytime Eastbound?

Admittedly, I have never booked nor boarded a daytime eastbound flight. Personally, I have no trouble sleeping in planes, even on short economy class flights, as long as there is a wall I can lean on. Nonetheless, there are still good reasons to choose a daytime flight over a red-eye:

1. On short flights from the US East Coast to Europe, there is often less than six hours actual time in which sleeping is possible. If you still want to eat, watch a movie or have trouble falling asleep, your chances for relaxing slumber are rather narrow.
2. A long flight in economy class is much less exhausting during the day – when your body is awake. Rather than at night, when your exhausted carcass urges you to rest. And the combination of a daytime flight and a night at your destination in a real (hotel-)bed is still cheaper than a business class ticket.
3. While modern business class seats offer astonishingly comfortable bedding options: They cannot beat a hotel bed.
4. Most red-eyes leave America in the late afternoon or even close to midnight. That means you either have to pay for an additional night in a hotel or see how you can fill that time. An additional problem is finding a convenient and safe place for your luggage during that time.
5. Daytime flights can help to ease jet lag. In an ideal scenario, you board the early flight, stay awake during your time over the pond and fall sound asleep as soon as you’re home or in a hotel room.
6. One of the best things when flying is looking out of the window. And while spying on the endless blue of the ocean isn’t the most thrilling experience, it is more entertaining than spotting darkness and strobe lights for six hours straight.

Of course, there are advantages of overnight flights, as well. The most important one: Arriving at nine or ten in the evening in Europe means you have little to no connecting flights available. Many people have no quarrel with red-eye flights and arrive rested well enough.

From an airline point of view, daytime east bounds are quite costly. Their aircraft have to spend one night in America and one night in Europe sitting on the ground, or in airline terms: losing money.

List of All Daytime Flights from North America to Europe

All in all, we were able to find 18 flights or 13 routes that met our conditions (as of March 2024). Our requirements for this list are a departure time after 6 am and arrival on the same day. There are flights that arrive in Europe as late (or early) as 1 am. However, these can hardly be considered daytime flights.

American Airlines

American Airlines offers daytime flights on two routes, both going to London. A Boeing 777 departing from New York and a Boeing 787 departing from Chicago.

• AA 90 | Chicago ORD – London LHR | 08:20 – 22:10 (7h 50min)
• AA 142 | New York JFK – London LHR | 09:30 – 21:40 (7h 10min)
  (two hours later during the winter schedule)

Azores Airlines

Azores Airlines only takes you half the way across the Atlantic. A connection flight from the islands (most likely Ponta Delgada) to the European mainland will take three additional hours or even more. At least, it is rather easy to score one-way tickets for these routes. More interesting are the odd nonstop services from New York and Toronto to Porto, operated by a leased Boeing 767-300ER from EuroAtlantic Airlines.

Their other routes from New York and Toronto, going to Terceira, is also operated by a wet-leased plane. In this case, it is a Plus Ultra Airlines Airbus A330. The three other flights feature Azores Airlines’ own A320neo or A321neo, all of them equipped with seat back entertainment systems.

• S4 330 | Toronto YYZ – Terceira TER | 13:25 – 23:20 (5h 55min)
• S4 282 | Boston BOS – Ponta Delgada PDL | 11:35 – 20:40 (5h 5min)
• S4 232 | Boston BOS – Terceira TER | 11:35 – 20:40 (5h 5min)
• S4 372 | Toronto YYZ – Porto OPO | 11:15 – 23:10 (6h 55min)
  (June until September 2024)
• S4 248 | Bermuda BDA – Ponta Delgada PDL | 11:45 – 19:35 (4h 50min)
  (June until September 2024)
• S4 276 | New York JFK – Porto OPO | 11:30 – 22:30 (6h 30min)
  (June until September 2024)
• S4 324 | New York JFK – Terceira TER | 11:00 – 20:45 (5h 45min)
  (June until September 2024)

Air Canada

During their summer schedule, Air Canada offers a daily service from Halifax to London, operated by a Boeing 737MAX (if they are not grounded again). During the winter schedule, there are two fewer weekly frequencies. Departing from Toronto or Montreal, only overnight flights are available.

• AC 868 | Halifax YHZ – London LHR | 10:55 – 21:00 (6h 5min)
  (Roughly 40 minutes earlier during the winter)

British Airways

Currently, British Airways offers three daily services that cross the Atlantic during the day. The one from Newark will be discontinued during the summer schedule. The flight from Boston arrives early enough to catch a handful of connecting flights to the European mainland.

• BA 178 | New York JFK – London LHR | 07:55 – 19:45 (6h 50min)
• BA 238 | Boston BOS – London LHR | 07:20 – 18:55 (6h 25min)
• BA 180 | New York EWR – London LHR | 08:55 – 20:35 (6h 40min, ends March 2024)

Delta Air Lines

Starting in April 2024, Delta Air Lines adds a new daytime connection to their schedule. A Boeing 767-300ER will leave New York at eight in the morning and arrive in Paris the same evening. It’s the only flight on this list arriving at the European mainland instead of an island or Istanbul (spoiler).

• DL 266 | New York JFK – Paris CDG | 08:05 – 21:35 (7h 30min)
  (starts April 2024)

Icelandair

Iceland is quite similar to the Azores: if you want to go to Europe, a flight to an island this far off the coast won’t necessarily help you. But in connection with a stopover on the island, there are two flights that might be interesting. And your onward flight to Europe will be operated in daylight, too. Only the equipment (a Boeing 737MAX) might not be everybody’s cup of tea.

• FI 612 | New York JFK – Keflavik KEF | 13:00 – 22:35 (5h 35min)
• FI 634 | Boston BOS – Keflavik KEF | 12:35 – 21:50 (5h 15min)

jetBlue

jetBlue entered transatlantic competition three years ago and has been one of the most valued options for crossing the pond. The airline offers a daytime connection, too, and uses their Airbus A321LR fleet on it.

• B6 1108 | New York JFK – London LHR | 08:07 – 20:45 (7h 38min)
  (one hour later during the winter schedule)

Turkish Airlines

One might think that the distance that the distance between New York and Istanbul is too long to be traversed during a single day. And you’d be almost right, as Turkish Airlines’ Airbus A330 reaches the Bosporus less than 30 minutes before midnight.

• TK 112 | New York JFK – Istanbul IST | 06:55 Uhr – 23:40 (9h 45min)
  (July until October 2024)

United Airlines

United’s only daytime offer is a Boeing 767 service from Newark to Heathrow:

• UA 934 | New York EWR – London LHR | 08:30 – 20:40 (7h 10min)
  (one hour later during the winter schedule)

Virgin Atlantic

We are close to the rear-end of the alphabet and about to conclude our list. The last entry is Virgin Atlantic, deploying one of their Airbus A350 for a daytime rotation between – you might’ve guessed it – New York and London.

• VS 26 | New York JFK – London LHR | 08:20 – 20:10
  (one hour later during the winter schedule)

How Can I Book These Daytime Flights?

Usually, metasearch engines like Google Flights, kayak or Skyscanner don’t display these options, especially when London isn’t your final destination. The reason is the lack of matching connecting flights from Heathrow or Paris when arriving there at eight in the evening or even later.

For example, we want to go from Toulouse to New York early next year and found these €442 tickets from British Airways. But Google Flights simply doesn’t display American Airlines or British Airways daytime services, because you can’t make any connections to Southern France:

You can fix this by switching to the multistop search option. Instead of searching for a Toulouse to New York roundtrip, we are now looking for three flights: Toulouse to New York on the same day as above, New York to London two weeks later and London to Toulouse a day after that. And now, the daytime flight shows up, without increasing the price:

In the last step, you select the last flight to Toulouse and get your itinerary at the exact same price, but without the hassle of the dreaded red-eye and the benefit of an additional day in London:

In most cases, you have to continue your journey less than 24 hours after your transatlantic flight arrives. If you stay longer than 24 hours, your layover turns into a stopover and a different set of fare rules applies, most likely resulting in (much) higher prices.

If you are already living in one of the cities that receives daytime services, this might be both a blessing and a curse. On one hand, you don’t have to search for hotels or matching connection flights, but can go straight home after arriving. On the other hand, you will likely have to pay more anyway, since non-stop flights are usually more expensive than itineraries with a change of planes.

Have you ever crossed the Atlantic eastbound on a daytime flight? Would you like to share your experience? Or have we overlooked your favorite daytime connection? Don’t hesitate to tell us in the comments!

Translated by Felix

Cover Picture: Peer Linder