Love: Iberia Launches Reverse Redeye Flight To United States

Iberia is adjusting the schedule on one of its routes to the United States, and I’m a huge fan of this change…

Iberia’s Madrid to Dallas reverse redeye flight

Generally speaking, flights between the United States and Western Europe are redeyes in the eastbound direction, and daytime flights in the westbound direction. There are a limited number of eastbound daytime flights (typically between the East Coast and London), but there are currently no westbound redeye flights. Well, that will be changing, as flagged by @JoeTravels and @IshrionA.

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With the start of the IATA winter 2025-2026 season, Iberia will be adjusting the schedule on its route between Madrid (MAD) and Dallas (DFW). Through October 27, 2025, the route operates with the following schedule:

IB363 Madrid to Dallas departing 4:00PM arriving 8:10PM
IB364 Dallas to Madrid departing 9:40PM arriving 2:20PM (+1 day)

Then as of October 28, 2025, the route will operate with the following schedule:

IB363 Madrid to Dallas departing 12:55AM arriving 5:30AM
IB364 Dallas to Madrid departing 1:55PM arriving 6:15AM (+1 day)

As you can tell, it’s that westbound flight that’s worth noting here, as it leaves Madrid at 12:55AM, arriving in Dallas at 5:30AM the same day. There’s so much that’s awesome about this flight:

• It’s just generally really efficient to fly overnight, especially given the length of the flight, since you can have a full day in Madrid and a full day in Dallas
• This new schedule is so much better for connectivity, since an early morning arrival in Dallas will give unlimited connection opportunities, while the 8:10PM arrival in Dallas is less than ideal for connections

It’s worth noting that there are plenty of reverse redeyes from Europe to the Americas, for destinations like Argentina, Brazil, Mexico, etc. However, this will be the only one operating between Western Europe and the United States (I specifically say Western Europe, because Turkish operates some reverse redeyes from Istanbul).

The one thing that’s inefficient about the routing is how much time the aircraft spends on the ground in Dallas, in order to maximize connections. But I assume that in the winter schedule, Iberia has some frames to spare.

I wish we’d see more reverse redeye flights!

Back in 2016, I wrote a post about how I’d love to see airlines add more reverse redeyes between Western Europe and the United States. Okay, clearly not every airline immediately listened to me, but nearly a decade later, at least we’re seeing one such flight, so that’s kind of cool.

Admittedly there are some general challenges with reverse redeyes operating to the United States on a widespread basis:

• Many European airports (in particular) have curfews, so this wouldn’t work so well out of Frankfurt (FRA), London (LHR), etc.
• It’s important for flight schedules to align with connecting banks of flights, so landing in New York at 3AM isn’t exactly useful
• In some markets it’s just not feasible due to the lack of time change between the origin and destination, when adjusted for local time

London to Los Angeles? Of course that wouldn’t work, given the Heathrow curfew, the eight-hour time change for most of the year, and the flight time of roughly 11 hours. That would basically mean the flight would depart at 10PM and land at 1AM, so that’s hardly a redeye.

But a Lisbon or Madrid to Miami flight departing at 12-1AM and arriving at 4-5AM? I’d say that would be pretty useful. Anyway, I doubt we’ll see these on a widespread basis, but I’m happy to at least see something.

Bottom line

Iberia’s Madrid to Dallas flight will see an interesting schedule change as of late October 2025, whereby the flight will depart at 12:55AM, and land at 5:30AM. This will be the only reverse redeye between Western Europe and the United States, and I think that’s really cool to see.

Here’s to hoping this flight proves successful, and that we see more of these flights added over time.

What do you make of Iberia’s reverse redeye flight? Would you take it?