How to Work Out a Flight's Arrival Time (with Time Zones)

Lokesh Rathore
By Lokesh RathoreUpdated 9 Jun 2026 · 6 min read

"Departure plus flight time" sounds like all you need to know what time you will land. Then time zones get involved, and a fifteen-hour flight can land before lunch on the same day you left. Here is the simple way to work out a flight's real arrival time in the destination's local clock, with three worked examples, including the kind that turns up in exam papers.

The simple method, in three steps

Whatever the route, the same three steps work:

  1. Write down your departure time in the clock of the city you are leaving.
  2. Add the flight time. This is when you would land if the destination kept the same clock as home.
  3. Shift by the time difference between the two cities: add the hours if your destination is ahead, take them off if it is behind. That gives the real local arrival time.

And keep an eye on the date, because the answer can roll over to the next day, or even land you "earlier" than you set off.

Example 1: a short hop, Delhi to Dubai

Say you leave Delhi at 09:00 on a flight of about 3 hours 15 minutes. Dubai runs 1 hour 30 minutes behind India.

You land at about 10:45 the same morning, Dubai time. The clock barely moves, because the two cities are close in time.

Example 2: the classic exam question, Sydney to Beijing

This is the kind of question that shows up in maths and aptitude papers: a flight leaves Sydney at 19:30 and takes 11 hours 45 minutes; Beijing is 2 hours behind Sydney; what time does it arrive?

The flight lands at 05:15 the next day, Beijing time. The overnight flight crosses into tomorrow, so the date moves on by one.

Example 3: the time-traveller, Delhi to New York

Now a long westbound haul. You leave Delhi at 02:00 on a flight of about 15 hours 12 minutes. New York runs 9 hours 30 minutes behind India.

You leave at 2 in the morning, spend over fifteen hours in the air, and still land at 07:42 the same morning in New York. Flying west you gain hours, so the local clock can land you "before" you left.

Why the date jumps, or goes backwards

The date follows the same logic. Flying east you lose hours and often land the next day, which is why a flight to Australia or Japan so often arrives "tomorrow". Flying west you gain hours, so you can land on the same calendar day you departed, sometimes at an earlier clock time than your take-off. Nothing is broken; you are simply crossing the lines where the clocks change.

The easy way: let the calculator do it

Working this out by hand is fine for one trip, but the time difference is the fiddly part, especially with daylight saving in the mix. The flight time calculator on this site does all three steps for you: enter your two airports and a departure time, and it gives the arrival in the destination's local clock, tells you whether you land the next day, and shows the exact time-zone gap. If you also want to understand the flight-time part, see how flight time is calculated, and our jet lag guide for what that time difference does to your body.

So next time you book, you do not have to guess what the clock will say when you land. Add the flight time, shift for the time zone, and watch the date. Or just let the tool do the arithmetic and tell you exactly when to ask someone to pick you up.