Red-eye flight

A red-eye flight is any flight departing late at night and arriving early the next morning. The term red-eye, common in North America, derives from the fatigue symptom of having red eyes, which can be caused or aggravated by late-night travel. The red-eye flight usually flies eastbound. The flight is usually four to six hours, less than seven-hour full sleep, but due to time differences, a red-eye flight that departs around midnight arrives around 6am or 7am. Westbound flights that depart around midnight and arrive in the early morning are also colloquically called red-eye flights, despite the fact that those flights are significantly longer than seven or eight hours.

A red eye flight is one which is too short to sleep on and thus causing significant distress to your optic nerves from fatigue. Flights between Los Angeles and New York are a good example, which are approximately six hours long, depart between 10pm to 1am and arrive between 5am to 7am.

The majority of transcontinental flights are operated during the day, but as of 2010 red-eye flights operate from Perth to Sydney, Brisbane, Cairns, Canberra and Melbourne, and from Darwin to Sydney, Brisbane and Melbourne. Red-eye flights have previously operated from Australia to New Zealand and Fiji. Red-eye flights to Australia operate from various locations in South-East Asia and North America, such as Scoot's flights from Singapore to Gold Coast, Sydney, and Melbourne. Jetstar offers red-eye flights between Melbourne and Wellington with the flight departing Melbourne at 1am and arriving in Wellington at 6am

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