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.
- Madrid – Dallas Fort Worth, 12:55 a.m. – 5:30 a.m., Iberia 363
Dallas Fort Worth – Madrid, 1:55 p.m. – 6:15 a.m.+1, Iberia 364
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)
Until now, it’s been IBeria at midnight from MADrid to MEXico City with good AA connections.
Not their first overnight to America, they already have overnight flights from Madrid to Buenos Aires, Montevideo, São Paulo, Santiago, México City, Lima and Bogotá.
DFW is the gateway to Latin America, Gary. I don’t think this route is for American tourists.
That’s interesting. It’s been a while, but even a decade ago, Iberia’s a330s were getting old…interiors could use a refresh. Also, I thought that cargo often flies the opposite of many commercial flights.
I think it is awesome
Every time I come back to europe I am limited unless I am in a hub with flights to YVR and now might arrive dfw in time for morning connection home, even if it means 2 stops overall
*come back FROM europe…
Sweet! This is great imo! I use the MAD-MEX redeye about 3-4x a year, with a connection back into California. I gives me a full work day in Europe, plus I get home in time for a full workday on the other end.
@D.A. — I did double-take when I saw ‘MAD-MEX’… I thought I read, MAD MAX… ‘Witness me!’ @L737, you there, buddy? Please tell me you get the reference. I hope it’s not… ‘mediocre.’
this is all about connections over Madrid – I think IB is on to something here.
Anyone who flies to Australia or Asia from the west coast a lot has no sympathy for someone moaning about flying this new itin.
@1900 – Ha! I got your back on this one, very shiny and chrome reference.
Really cool, should we call them der-eye flights or something?
@L737 — Ride eternal! To Valhalla! *spray can*
Beware of forced downgrades from business to economy. The reimbursement is $420 for a $3500 ticket.
I’m in the minority, but I’d be thrilled. Not having a hotel room is fine; just check out and leave your luggage, and you’ve got an extra day. I wish more airlines would operate this sort of schedule, and now that you’ve flagged this, looks like it’s a flight I’m more likely to choose.
Sometimes I have gone late night AMS-IST and then early morning hours IST-ORD in order to sleep on a US schedule on the way to the US and arrive in the morning in Chicago well-rested.
Also have done other Schengen-IST-JFK routes that allow for sleeping on IST-JFK during the dark early morning hours at IST and arriving at JFK at around 5am.
“However, there is currently no Westbound transatlantic redeyes – overnight flights from Europe to the U.S.”?
As I type this, there is a westbound transatlantic redeye flight from the second busiest airport in Europe to the US: Turkish Airlines Flight 111 left IST at 12:45am local IST time and is scheduled to arrive in NYC at JFK at 4:40am local JFK time.
It’s also for businesspeople from all over Europe, so they can get a full day of work before sleeping overnight.
IB has something here. There is also lots of feed from the AA superhub at DFW, especially from Latin America!
I’m not a fan of redeyes, I wish they turned this plane around for a daytime return to Europe.
Iberia already has several flights to america that are red eyes.
I’ve taken the Madrid to Santiago flight, but they also have several others to Lima, Bogata, CDMX and others.
This might be the only one to North America though, but it’s got several to america already.
Personally, not a fan of redeyes. I guess if you have the means to fly (or work pays for) business class, it’s ok – but for most of us it’s the big coach in back. And, there’s no way that I can get any sleep back there. Bad enough landing as a zombie in Europe, but doing so in the States would be too much for me. Frankly, I was always a fan of the daytime BOS-LHR flights, though I understand why that wouldn’t be everyone’s cup of tea.
@Orange Julius — That blows. However, EU261 has a provision on ‘involuntary downgrades’. Since Iberia is an EU carrier, it should be eligible, *unless* the total itinerary was outside of the EU to a non-EU (even with a connection in the EU, like JFK-MAD-RAK, for instance, then it would be up to the airline, if international, maybe Montreal Convention applies, but good luck with that.) Under EU261, reimbursement is based on length of flight, 1500km or less (30%), between 1500-3500km (50%), and flights greater than 3500km (75%). So, basic math, $3,500 business class ticket, if eligible, should receive reimbursement of at least $1,050-$1,750-$2,625, depending on length of routing (much greater than $420). Those rules have been around since 2004. If this happened recently, you should appeal to the airline for more money, contact regulators, and/or start a credit card dispute, etc. Generally, I wish we had EU261 equivalent in the USA. Our passengers deserve better protections. I repeat this as often as I can because we’ll never get anywhere if we don’t try.
@Rick — I see you’re doing the (‘America’ as-in, not the country, but the continents) thing. Cool… Let me guess, next you’ll ‘educate’ us on how it’s not just the United States (of America), there’s also the United States of Mexico (but no one really refers to them like that). Ok, so, now that we’ve addressed unnecessary semantics… From my experience, most flights between South America and the northern hemisphere (USA, Europe, etc.) involve redeyes, both ways (north- and south-bound).
At 1990:
Americans learn there are 7 continents. The rest of the world earns there are 6 (the Americas) are one continent for the rest of the world.
I love this! I wish there were one into New York. I wish we had westbound domestic redeyes — leave New York at 2 a.m. and get to the west coast at 5 a.m.
Currently their plane leaves Madrid and returns less than 24 hours later. One plane can (sort of) be allocated to this route for 365 r/ts a year. The red eye version (because of a longer time to turn around in the US) requires more than one plane equivalent. Could thst be the crux of whyvwe don’t see red eyes out of Europe?
I agree with other comments here… this is a smart move. When flying home (DFW) on Oneworld from Europe, the latest flight you can take to get back is around 5pm from LHR.
It will be nice to have a last-ditch back up via MAD-DFW when you’re in Europe and need to stay until later in the evening.