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Icelandair offers only true "time-traveling" transatlantic flight for winter 2025/2026

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Icelandair offers only true "time-traveling" transatlantic flight for winter 2025/2026
Policy
Webp ice
Bogi Nils Bogason, CEO and President | Icelandair

So-called "time-traveling" flights refer to routes where the arrival time at the destination is earlier than the departure time from the origin, due to differences in time zones and flight duration. This phenomenon occurs when the scheduled flight time is shorter than the time zone difference between the two airports.

For the upcoming northern winter season of 2025/2026, which runs from October 26 to March 28 according to IATA slot seasons, data from OAG covering more than 3,000 airport pairs between Europe, Africa, the Middle East, and the Americas shows that only one long-haul transatlantic passenger route fits this "time-traveling" definition.

The only such route this winter will be operated by Icelandair, flying from Keflavik to Vancouver. During the winter season, Icelandair will operate this service four times a week using its 160-seat Boeing 737 MAX 8 aircraft, which is its lowest-capacity jet. The higher-capacity Airbus A321LR will not be used on this route during winter.

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On most occasions, flight FI697 is scheduled to depart Keflavik at 17:15 and arrive in Vancouver at 17:05 local time, arriving ten minutes before its scheduled departure. This occurs because the flight's block time is 7 hours and 50 minutes, while the time zone difference is eight hours. On three dates—December 20, December 27, and January 3—the flight will arrive twenty minutes before it leaves, with a schedule of 17:50 departure and 17:30 arrival.

Another notable example involves Icelandair's daily winter service from Keflavik to Seattle. The most common schedule for this route is a departure at 17:00 and an arrival at 17:00 local time, meaning the block time matches the time zone change. The Airbus A321LR will mainly serve this route, with occasional use of the Boeing 737 MAX 8 and Boeing 757-200.

Other Icelandair routes come close but do not meet the "time-traveling" criteria. For example, flights from Keflavik to Portland depart at 16:50 and arrive at 17:00, while flights to Minneapolis depart at 16:45 and arrive at 17:25.

Looking beyond Iceland, several mainland European airports have flights that arrive shortly after they depart. Most of these are operated by KLM, with examples including Amsterdam to Calgary (12:40-13:40), Edmonton (14:10-15:10), Portland (10:25-11:25), and Vancouver (13:10-14:10). However, none meet the maximum one-hour difference required for inclusion as a "time-traveling" flight.

The closest non-Icelandic entry is Air France's service from Paris Charles de Gaulle to Vancouver, operated by an Airbus A350-900. These flights usually depart at 10:20 and arrive at 11:25 local time during the winter season.

There are no other non-Icelandic long-haul transatlantic passenger markets that meet the one-hour or less difference between departure and arrival times this winter.

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