Can someone explain why flights from Europe to North America often leave in the morning or early afternoon, but flights from North American to Europe often leave at night?

When I fly back to the US from Europe, the flight usually leaves between 10am and 2pm (although there are some that leave later). This puts me back in the US between noon and 5pm. This is perfect because with jet lag, I can goof off for a little bit then go to bed.

However, when when I fly to Europe from the US, the flight often leaves between 6pm and 10pm. This gets me to Europe between 7am and 11am. This means you are stuck staying awake the entire day.

Since flights leave Europe in the morning, why can't they leave the US in the morning?

one reason is that there is little to no demand for westbound TATL flights in the late evening, and it doesn't make economic sense for US airlines to park their jets overnight in Europe

Gotcha. So these flights arrive in Europe, then almost immediately turn right back around?

Additional reasons can be connections and aircraft availability. Not all planes go A-->B-->A. Some go A-->B-->C-->B-->A.

I personally liked BA's 00:30 NYC-LHR flight when it was around (might be seasonal) as I would actually get some decent sleep instead of 3 hours and being a zombie for most of the day.

yes ... the evening departures from the US arrive in the early to mid morning hours, and the jets then operate the return flights that you yourself cited as leaving between 10am and 2pm

my first TATL was a daytime IAD-LHR flight ... it arrived ~8pm which was too late to make any onward connections, so we had to spend the night in an airport-area hotel and get back to LHR in the morning

There are a few daytime flights to Europe from the East Coast of the US. But they are only useful if you aren't connecting onward as they arrive too late to catch a connecting flight. They also have to leave extremely early so if you have to connect to catch them it might not be an option. So basically they are reliant on O&D on both sides, a great option if you are flying NYC-LON, not so great if you are traveling somewhere else in the US to somewhere else in Europe. Remember at many airports there are curfews so they can't take off/land in the middle of the night.

It's also about aircraft utilization. It costs money to keep a plane on the ground. So the plane arrives in Europe from the US and then two hours later is flying back to the US.

A non-stop flight from the US to mainland Europe is anywhere between 7-9 (East coast) and 12-14 hours (West coast) depending on the destination. There is a timezone difference of 6 to 9 hours between the US and most of Europe. Many European airports have either night curfews or quotas at night (e.g., for CDG, between 0:30am and 5:29am). Even when the airport is open at night, some infrastructure (public transport, car rental) may be closed.

Combining all of this, this means that to arrive before the curfew / night quota slots, a West coast flight would need to depart before 5am or even earlier, and an East coast flight before 11am or even earlier depending on the European airport.

This is not impossible, but it seriously constrains the possibilities.

I believe virtually all of these flights (from JFK/NYC, BOS, ORD - CP also operate a "Dayliner" service from YYZ nearly 20 years ago) fly to LHR. Reason is, it is he closet large European hub, large destination city (most on these flights had SE England as their final destination), and also an hour behind CET. A flight to CDG or AMS may take almost the same time but arrive an hour later in local time.

Not entirely true.

For UA, EWR-LHR and IAD-LHR leave just late enough (after 9am) that regional connections are feasible...unfortunately that means a 530a/6a departure from your connecting city though.

Interesting thread. To make more people happy, I wish flights were better spread out around the clock. I understand people's desire to arrive in the afternoon or evening, so as to get to bed not too long after arrival.

But I like to maximize useful hours on the ground. My ideal long-flight departure time is 2 a.m. If I'm coming back from a holiday, I want to stay as long as I can without buying another hotel night. If I'm starting a holiday, I want to work a full day, then catch up on things, do laundry, pack, and leave for the airport. If my outbound flight can't leave at 2 a.m., it should at least arrive around 7 a.m. so I can maximize that first day wherever I'm going.

And in the USA, I wish we had westbound redeyes -- leave New York at 2 a.m. and then arrive in Los Angeles or Las Vegas ready to enjoy a full day.

Seth

A daytime NYC/WAS-LHR also allows connections from the West Coast on red eyes.