Hi,

If you look at schedules over the Atlantic, you will see that US airlines tend to leave Europe earlier, as they expect their passengers to want to connect to other domestic flights in the US and thus need to arrive at a decent time to permit that.

The European airlines on the other hand want you to be able to connect from wherever in Europe and end your journey at the arrival in the US.

(Of course, with the alliances, things change, but that's my general experience.)

Cheers,

GenevaFlyer