Who doesn’t enjoy time travel? This is the concept of arriving at your destination airport before you leave, which is achievable since the time zone difference exceeds the block or scheduled time. This concept is especially appealing for long-haul or transatlantic travel.
The most well-known examples included Concorde. BA001 left Heathrow at 10:30 and arrived at New York JFK at 09:25 local time, whereas AF002 left Paris CDG at 10:15 and arrived at 08:15. They’re long gone.
Transatlantic Time Travel: 2025
Cirium Diio analysis of scheduled flights between Europe, Africa, the Middle East, and the Americas found only half a dozen cases in 2025, organized alphabetically by carrier.
Readers may dislike the inclusion of the Greenland case because they do not believe it is truly transatlantic. Nonetheless, it exists because it is unique, rarely mentioned, and mostly transports the uncommon 37-seat Dash 8-200 (pictured below) to an airfield with a runway less than 4,000 feet long. It has a maximum block time of 1 hour 50 minutes.
In 2025, there will be 387 departures for time-traveling flights on the following routes combined. Only one out of every 833 transatlantic trips operates in this manner.
Icelandair flies from Keflavik to Seattle and Vancouver. This year, only one out of every five departures from Seattle will be timed, compared to nearly one-third in Vancouver.
| Airline | Direction of route | Departure and arrival times in 2015 (local); only time travel services are mentioned | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|
| Condor | Frankfurt-Anchorage | Various times, but 16:30-16:10 is the most common; arrive 20 minutes before you leave | The route runs May 17-September 13; three-weekly A330neo |
| Discover | Frankfurt-Anchorage | 13:20-12:50; arrive 30 minutes before you leave | June 4-September 20; twice-weekly A330-300. The route started in June 2022 |
| Finnair | Helsinki-Seattle | 16:40-16:00; arrive 40 minutes before you leave | May 3-August 21; five weekly A330-300. The oneworld link only began in June 2022. Want tickets? Find them here! |
| Icelandair* | Keflavik-Kulusuk (Greenland) | Various times, but 10:45-10:35 is the most common; arrive 10 minutes before you leave | Frequencies vary considerably, but usually weekly to six weekly. While mainly on the Dash 8-200, the Q400 appears from June 2 until September 24 for greater summer uplift |
| Icelandair | Keflavik-Seattle | 17:05-17:00; arrive 5 minutes before you leave. See the note above | Served year-round, but time travel flights are winter-only (daily). When all flights are combined, the route is flown daily in the winter and up to triple daily in the summer. The newly delivered A321LR will begin on April 30, and all Seattle services are due to be on it this summer (this may not happen given limited aircraft) |
| Icelandair | Keflavik-Vancouver | Two times that time travel: 17:15-16:55 (arrive 20 minutes before you leave) and 17:15-17:00 (15 minutes). See the note above | Served year-round, but time travel flights are winter-only (four weekly). When all services are combined, the route is flown four weekly in the winter and six weekly in the summer. All flights are on the 737 MAX 8 |
| * Operated by Air Iceland Connect |
What about arriving when you leave?
Icelandair has operated flights to Portland, Oregon, since 2015. After a decade, airplanes typically arrive on the West Coast at 17:55 local time after taking off from Iceland at 16:50.
Due to the longer block time relative to Icelandair’s Vancouver and Seattle flights, no Portland flight time travels. However, just twice in 2025 (yes, twice!) did passengers arrive and depart at the same time, as scheduled.
aboard January 1 and 3, only, passengers aboard the 757-200ERs operating flight FI665 left Keflavik at 16:50 and arrived in Oregon at 16:50 local time.