American plane taxiing to 27R runway at Heathrow airport – geograph.org.uk – 6971186 · Wikimedia Commons contributor · CC BY-SA 2.0 · edited
For one week this autumn, New York is four hours behind London instead of five. Every transatlantic itinerary booked across that week is quietly an hour different from what most travellers assume.
Europe and the United States do not change their clocks on the same day. The UK and the EU go back at 2am on the last Sunday in October, which is October 25 in 2026, and the United States does not follow until November 1 at 2am. The gap between those two Sundays is the window.
- October 25: UK and EU clocks go back one hour at 2am local.
- November 1: US clocks go back one hour at 2am local.
- In between: New York to London is a 4 hour gap, not the usual 5.
- Unchanged: the flight time. Only the clocks either end move.
The Flight Does Not Get Shorter, the Arrival Moves
A seven hour flight is still seven hours. What changes is the local time printed at the far end, because the destination clock has shifted underneath the schedule.
Airlines handle this by publishing local times that are already correct, so the ticket is right. The confusion happens in a traveller’s head, and in every plan built around it: the car booked for a certain hour, the meeting scheduled from home, the family call timed to the usual offset.
Where It Actually Costs You Something
Connections are the real exposure. An itinerary that routes through a European hub during the gap week has its layover computed in local time at that hub, and a connection that looked comfortable when you booked in September has not changed length, but your mental arithmetic about it probably has.
Eastbound overnight flights are the sharpest case. Departing the US on October 24 and landing in Europe on October 25 means arriving on the far side of a clock change that happened while you were in the air, which is an extra hour of apparent morning on top of the usual overnight disorientation.
Two More Dates Worth Knowing
The reverse gap happens every spring, when the US springs forward on the second Sunday in March and Europe waits until the last Sunday, so the offset widens for three weeks rather than narrowing for one. Autumn’s version is shorter and catches more people because it is easy to forget it exists at all.
Not everywhere plays. Most of Arizona and all of Hawaii do not observe daylight saving time, so their relationship to Europe changes on October 25 and then stays put on November 1, which is the opposite pattern to the rest of the country.
Booking Into and Around the Window
If you have flexibility, there is nothing to avoid here. The gap week is not a disrupted week, it is simply a week where the arithmetic differs, and late October is a strong time to fly to Europe on price and crowds alike.
If you are still choosing dates, the timing of the booking matters more than the timing of the clocks, and our guide to the cheapest day to buy flights covers where the real savings sit. For the transatlantic budget carriers that concentrate on this season, our Norse Atlantic Airways review is the closer look.
A Short Checklist Before You Fly
Read every time on your itinerary as local time at that airport, because that is how airlines publish them, and do not convert anything yourself. Then check the three things you scheduled around the flight rather than inside it: airport transfers, hotel check in, and anything you arranged with someone at home.
If you use a phone calendar with a home time zone pinned, look at the entries for that week specifically. Calendar apps update time zones correctly and the entries you typed manually do not.
| If you… | What to do |
|---|---|
| Fly to Europe between October 25 and November 1 | Use a 4 hour New York to London gap, not 5, for anything you schedule from home. |
| Are connecting through a European hub that week | Your layover is unchanged in length. Read it in local time and do not convert. |
| Take an overnight eastbound on October 24 | You land after a clock change that happened mid flight. Plan a slow first morning. |
| Live in Arizona or Hawaii | Your offset to Europe shifts on October 25 and then does not move again on November 1. |
| Have manually typed calendar entries | Check that week by hand. Apps convert; typed entries do not. |
One week, one hour. October 25 to November 1 is the only stretch where the usual offset is wrong.
Tickets are right, assumptions are not. Airlines publish correct local times throughout.
It is not a disruption. Nothing is cancelled or delayed. Only the arithmetic changes.
When do the clocks change in 2026?
The UK and EU go back at 2am on October 25. The United States goes back at 2am on November 1.
What is the New York to London time difference that week?
Four hours instead of the usual five, from October 25 until November 1.
Will my flight time change?
No. The flight is the same length and airlines publish local arrival times that already account for the change.
Does this affect Arizona and Hawaii?
Those places do not observe daylight saving time, so their offset to Europe shifts on October 25 and then stays fixed on November 1.
Does the same thing happen in spring?
Yes, in reverse and for longer. The US springs forward on the second Sunday in March and Europe on the last, widening the gap for about three weeks.
