The new year is nearly here. Scheduled passenger airlines worldwide plan 96,600 flights on January 1, down by a modest 3% compared to a typical Thursday in the month. Naturally, the reduction is nowhere near as dramatic as it is for Christmas Day. For one thing, Ryanair has 3,100 services on New Year’s Day, against none on Christmas Day.
According to Cirium Diio, 111 passenger flights are due to land at their destination airport at 23:59 on December 31, of which a massive 89 involve the US. Will those flights actually touch down in 2025 or 2026? Four flights are due to depart at 00:00 on January 1, including an Air Arabia Egypt Airbus A320ceo from Alexandria to Riyadh.
Long-Haul Flights Leaving In 2026 & Arriving In 2025
‘Time travel’ is always intriguing, and even more so when it involves going back by a year (or decade or millennium). Using Cirium Diio data to explore the schedules of all 96,600 flights on January 1 indicates that seven long-haul flights will leave in 2026 and arrive in 2025. For this, a cutoff point of 2,700 nautical miles (5,000 km) was chosen, which necessarily rules out other services.
Passengers may be able to celebrate New Year’s Eve twice. But the departure times of some flights, especially STARLUX’s offering from Taipei to 
San Francisco, might make that challenging. And that’s before considering how tired passengers will be, especially those flying in economy class.
|
Departure Time In 2026* |
Arrival Time In 2025** |
Route |
Airline & Equipment |
|---|---|---|---|
|
12:05 am |
7:00 pm |
Taipei to San Francisco |
STARLUX A350-900 |
|
12:30 am |
8:55 pm |
Hong Kong to Los Angeles |
Cathay Pacific 777-300ER |
|
12:50 am |
5:50 pm |
Tokyo Haneda to Los Angeles |
All Nippon 787-9 |
|
1:00 am |
9:00 pm |
Hong Kong to San Francisco |
Cathay Pacific 777-300ER |
|
1:00 am |
8:35 pm |
Hong Kong to Vancouver |
Cathay Pacific 777-300ER |
|
2:30 am |
10:00 pm |
Shenzhen to Vancouver |
Hainan Airlines 787-9 |
|
7:40 am |
6:55 pm |
Guam to Honolulu |
United Airlines 777-300ER |
|
* Local times. Shown in Simple Flying’s new time format |
** Local times. Shown in Simple Flying’s new time format |
STARLUX Will Leave Taiwan Just After Midnight On January 1
The Taiwanese carrier has flown between Taipei and San Francisco since December 2023. It was its second route to North America. It was attracted by the considerable local passenger traffic.
According to booking data, approximately 435,000 round-trip passengers flew between the two cities in the 12 months to October 2025. It was San Francisco’s third most-trafficked Asian market, after Tokyo and Seoul. Curiously, San Francisco will lose two of its ultra-long-haul routes in early 2026.
STARLUX’s offering is one of seven daily departures between Taipei and San Francisco on January 1. It joins EVA Air (three daily 777-300ER), United Airlines (two daily 777-200ER/777-300ER), and China Airlines (daily 777-300ER). However, only STARLUX’s service leaves in 2026 and arrives in 2025.
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OK, This Isn’t Long-Haul, But…
Air Tahiti Nui’s 787-9 service from Auckland back to Papeete leaves in 2026 and arrives in 2025. As it only covers 2,211 nautical miles (4,095 km), it was quite a bit shorter than the article’s cutoff point, which is why it was not mentioned in the table. Nonetheless, it is an intriguing market.
On New Year’s Day, its service will leave from New Zealand’s most populous city at 4:05 pm and arrive back in Tahiti at 10:00 pm the day before, local time. For those passengers returning home or staying there, a quick celebration before midnight might be possible. But many passengers will continue to Los Angeles, departing at the fun and appropriate time of 11:59 pm on New Year’s Eve.
