Have you ever wondered about the last flights of 2021 and the first flights of 2022? Wonder no longer, with 32 leaving at 23:59 on December 31st and three at 00:01 on January 1st. Traveling from one year to the next must be surreal, like arriving before you leave or crossing the international date line, losing a day as you progress across the Pacific from North America to parts of Asia or Australasia. Happy New Year!

Delta Air Lines Boeing 767-432(ER) 835MH (2)
Delta and partner Virgin have more than one in every five London-NYC flights. Photo: Vincenzo Pace | Simple Flying.

The last departures of 2021

Some 32 flights are due to leave at 23:59 on December 31st, one minute before fireworks go off in whatever city they're in. They're detailed in the following table and based on data from OAG. Of course, this is pushback time, with wheels up time inevitably at some point in the new year.

A chunk of flights that leave at this time benefit from meaningful time zone differences, with the destination often two+ hours ahead with a good median distance (2,382 miles, 3,833km). Of course, combining less time zone change and relatively short flights is especially problematic.

Airline

From

To

Departure time (local)

Arrival time (local)

Especially 'bad' timings

Potential extreme red-eyes include Sun Country from Las Vegas to Minneapolis, the shortest by both distance (1,299 miles, 2,091km) and block time (two hours and fifty-six minutes). Routes from New York to the Caribbean (driven by visiting friends and relatives demand) also fall into this category.

But perhaps the 'worst' (as highly subjective as this is) is Viva's Medellín to Mexico City, arriving at the ungodly hour of 03:29, one hour behind the time in Colombia. The schedule is probably partly because of Mexico City's chronic slot problem. It's somehow less 'bad' if the only direct competition has very similar times (Aeroméxico, 01:10-04:40).

KLM B787-10
The B787 has three departures at 23:59, two by KLM (using the -10 variant) and one by American (from Santiago; B787-8). Photo: Jounigripen via Flickr.

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The first departures of 2022

Three flights are due to leave at 00:01 on January 1st, as shown below, with all times local. However, while the first two are bookable, there's uncertainty about whether Iraq's UR Airlines will go. Its website isn't working, and previous flights don't show up as flown on Flightradar24 or RadarBox.com. If it does run, it'll use the B737-400 on the short, 271-mile (436km) link, with Iraq time one hour behind Armenia.

  • Frontier: Denver to Fort Myers, 00:01-05:40
  • Pakistan International: Peshawar to Al Ain, 00:01-02:30
  • UR Airlines: Yerevan to Erbil, 00:01-00:30
Frontier Airbus A320neo
Photo: Vincenzo Pace | Simple Flying.
In a reminder to take official announcements with a grain of salt, 59% of Frontier's announced routes were operated before.

32 others leave by 00:05

Volaris will leave JFK at 00:02 and arrive Guadalajara at 04:59, while the same carrier will depart Ciudad Juárez at 00:04 bound for Mexico City, arriving 03:24. (Funnily enough, I have been to the three Mexican airports mentioned here.)

A further 30 will go at 00:05, including American from Rio to Miami, IndiGo from Goa to Amritsar, and WestJet from Calgary to Punta Cana. My personal favorite is Pobeda from Perm to Moscow Vnukovo. Thanks to two time zone changes and a relatively short flight, it leaves at 00:05 on New Year's Day and arrives back at 23:55 on New Year's Eve.

Have you ever been on a flight scheduled to go at 23:59 or 00:01? Let us know in the comments.