Flights that arrive at the same time as when they departed

[Mangosteen]

I once flew from Georgetown, Malaysia to Medan, Sumatra (Indonesia). The flight time was 30 minutes. The time zone in Medan was 30 minutes behind Georgetown so our arrival time was listed as being identical as the departure time.

Maybe this is more common than I think. I guess you would just have to take say a 3 hour flight across 3 time zones.

Is this common? Anyone done this?

[TroutMan]

Flint (Michigan) to Chicago is an hour and crosses one time zone. The schedule today had a flight leaving and arriving at 6:00 AM.

[dan1500]

It can happen from Fort Wayne to Chicago too.
https://www.google.com/flights/?hl=e...012-08-09;tt=o

[Iggy]

Cayman Airways flight #833 departs Havana at 4:20pm with arrival in George Town at 4:20pm in the summer months.

[kunilou]

Indianapolis-Chicago. Flight arrives five minutes before it leaves!

[Siam Sam]

I've flown from Denpasar on Bali to Yogyakarta (pronounced Jogjakarta) on Java, which is one hour and crosses a time zone. Take off and land at the same time.

[mhendo]

Last time i flew from Sydney, Australia to San Francisco, California, the plane departed at about 2.30 p.m. on Tuesday afternoon, and arrived at about 11.00 a.m. on Tuesday morning.

Of course, going the other way it's a different story. Depart the west coast of the US on a Tuesday night, and arrive in Australia on Thursday morning. Where did Wednesday go?

[Senegoid]

Originally Posted by mhendo

Last time i flew from Sydney, Australia to San Francisco, California, the plane departed at about 2.30 p.m. on Tuesday afternoon, and arrived at about 11.00 a.m. on Tuesday morning.

A trans-Pacific flight could easily arrive the day before it departed.

(And the passengers would arrive a day younger too!)

(ETA: IIRC, this came up also with one of the recent eclipses that started in Asia and ended in the United States on the previous day.)

[John DiFool]

The Concorde, since it could fly faster than the sun moves across the sky, would typically land "earlier" than it took off when flying east to west.

[Lord Feldon]

A flight from Columbus to Chicago does this on a good day, although they're usually scheduled to last 10 or 20 minutes longer.

[Donnerwetter]

Isn't this somewhat common when you fly from Central Europe to the East coast of North America?

The time difference is 6 hours, roughly the same amount of time the flight takes.

[Siam Sam]

Ah yes, and flying from Lubbock, Texas to Albuquerque, New Mexico gets you landing at the same time as take-off. I've done that route before.

[mcgato]

I've flown from Atlanta to Birmingham, Alabama before, and I arrived 15 minutes before I took off. The flight is 45 minutes, and it crosses a time zone.

[Dano83860]

Depending on traffic the flight from Boise ID to Spokane WA can get in five minutes before it left.

[JWT Kottekoe]

At the North and South Pole you can do this on foot.

[ftg]

This was years ago, but I know someone who had a flight from Boise to Portland that did this, to the minute. Did a quick check online, seems that most direct flights nowadays are listed as being about 1:20 long, so :20 clock time. Probably have to schedule more time due to PDX being a busier airport now.

[Jaclofo]

"The time zone in Medan was 30 minutes behind Georgetown"

Are there 30 minute time zones? I thought time zones were 60 minutes apart???

Help. Im confused!!

[Richard Pearse]

Originally Posted by Jaclofo

"The time zone in Medan was 30 minutes behind Georgetown"

Are there 30 minute time zones? I thought time zones were 60 minutes apart???

Help. Im confused!!

Sure, most time zones are one hour but some are 30 minutes. For example, South Australia and the Northern Territory are both GMT + 9:30.

[Morgenstern]

Didn't the SR-71 leave New York and arrive in California over an hour earlier than it departed?

[Mangosteen]

Originally Posted by Jaclofo

"The time zone in Medan was 30 minutes behind Georgetown"

Are there 30 minute time zones? I thought time zones were 60 minutes apart???

Help. Im confused!!

Its a different country, but the distance is so little that they made it only a half an hour time difference.

Nowadays they are a full hour apart.

However, not all places on an even hour's time, GMT

Some places/countries use time offsets not an integral number of hours from UTC/GMT.

Examples:
Newfoundland (Canada) is UTC/GMT - 03:30 (summer -02:30)
Australia (Northern Territory) is +09:30
Australia (South Australia) is + 09:30 (summer +10:30)
India is +05:30
Iran is +03:30 (summer +04:30)
Afghanistan is +04:30
Burma (Myanmar) is + 06:30
Marquises Islands is - 09:30
Norfolk Isl. (Australia) is +11:30
Lord Howe Island (Australia) is + 10:30 (summer +11:00)
Sri Lanka is +05:30


Some places use quarter / hour offset from UTC/GMT.

Examples:
Nepal is UTC/GMT +05:45
Chatham Island (New Zealand) is UTC/GMT + 12:45 (summer UTC/GMT + 13:45 or winter in the northern hemisphere).
Western Australia, Eyre Highway towns: Eucla, Caiguna, Madura, Mundrabilla and Border Village (South Australia) use UTC/GMT +08:45

[Siam Sam]

Originally Posted by Jaclofo

"The time zone in Medan was 30 minutes behind Georgetown"

Are there 30 minute time zones? I thought time zones were 60 minutes apart???

Help. Im confused!!

You are very mistaken. Thailand is 30 minutes ahead of neighboring Burma. Oddest of all may be Nepal, which is 15 minutes ahead neighboring India (some say this is to emphasize its independence from its large neighbor) and 1 hour, 15 minutes behind Thailand.

[Cunctator]

I have taken the Wellington/Sydney flight on several occasions when the time difference has been three hours, which is pretty much equal to the length of the flight. So a 4.00pm departure from Wellington results in a 4.00pm arrival in Sydney.

[Colophon]

What about the flight that arrives the longest before it takes off?
I'm guessing it would be between two islands close to the date line - probably Samoa (UTC +13) to American Samoa (UTC-11), since Samoa shifted the date line last year.

In summer, Samoa observes daylight saving time, at UTC+14, so it is 25 hours ahead of American Samoa. The flight time between the two appears to be 35 minutes, so you'd arrive 24 hours 25 minutes before you left.

Polynesian flies this route, e.g:

FAGALII SAMOA FAGALII INT AIRPORT to PAGO PAGO, AMERICAN SAMOA TAFUNA INT. AIRPORT. Flight PAO - 212 dep 11Aug2012 07:30 arr 10Aug2012 08:05

So you arrive 23 hours 25 minutes before you leave (currently it is winter in Samoa, so now DST). The booking engine doesn't seem to extend to the southern summer months at the moment.

In theory, in the southern summer you could land two calendar days before you left, if there were flights close after midnight, e.g.

Depart Fagalii November 27, 00.10 hours, arrive Pago Pago November 25, 23:45 hours!

[ftg]

Samoa is only ~14°S. Why on Earth would they need to have DST? I found a page which talks about their 2009 law to adopt DST which lists the usual reasons a country far from the equator would do DST, but 14°? Does anyone really notice the change in daylight?

The Big Island is 19°N and Hawaii doesn't observe DST.

At least American Samoa doesn't bother.

[Eurograff]

Flights from Helsinki to Stockholm pass over one timezone (UTC+2 to UTC+1, in DST it's UTC+3 to UTC+2) and take about one hour, so they are often scheduled to arrive exactly the same time they leave. Examples include the 8:00 am, 9:30 am, 4:00 pm and 5:55 pm flights, among others.

I guess there are a lot of examples of this in cases where the distance between two airports on neighboring timezones or even further away matches just correctly, and you are flying from an earlier timezone to a later one.

[Elendil's Heir]

Originally Posted by JWT Kottekoe

At the North and South Pole you can do this on foot.

"What if it was on a Friday during Daylight Savings Time in a leap year, Fadder...?"

[Kevbo]

I once flew from Sydney, AUS, stopped for about 1.5 hours for fuel in Honolulu, HI, then flew to Los Angeles, CA, where we landed over an hour before we had left Sydney.

Also on that trip, I lost a Saturday when I left, and gained a Monday on the return leg. (above) That is screwed up, and I have felt gypped ever since.

[SanVito]

London-Paris, c. one hour flight, Paris one hour ahead.

[Colophon]

Originally Posted by ftg

Samoa is only ~14°S. Why on Earth would they need to have DST?

I was wondering the same thing. Bragging rights to have the earliest time zone, I suppose (although even with the extra hour it ties with Kiribati and Tokelau on that score).