America to London in time for dinner

West-to-East day-flights are multiplying, says Hamish McRae

Breakfast in New York, dinner in London? It is not only swanky but wholly possible, even in the post-Concorde era, because a small revolution is happening in flights across the Atlantic: the spread of the west-to-east day flight.

There were, for many years, four day-flights back from New York: one subsonic each from British Airways and American Airlines and two on Concorde. But not many people seemed to use the daylight services - I recall half-empty planes and the surprise in people's reaction when you told them what you had done.

However, in the last couple of years, there has been a burst of new routes. From New York City there are now four to Heathrow, leaving between 8am and 9.30am, since the original pair from BA and American from JFK have been joined by Virgin and another BA flight from Newark.

Better still, you can now also fly to London in daylight from Boston (one each from BA and American), Washington (on BA and on United), Chicago (on American) and Toronto (on Air Canada). Get up early enough and you could connect from almost anywhere in the Midwest or the north-eastern US seaboard. As yet, all the transatlantic day-flights come into London; there is nothing direct to other British or Continental cities. But since the earliest Virgin flight gets into Heathrow Terminal 3 at 8pm, it is possible to connect to the last BMI flight from Terminal 1 to Glasgow at 9.40pm.

So what's the case then? Why waste a day when you can travel overnight? For those of us who are fans of day-flights, there are six good reasons for choosing them.

First and most obvious, you are not wasting a day, since you arrive in decent shape. If you are fortunate enough to be on one of the genuinely flat beds, such as BA's Club World or the new Virgin Upper Class, then a night-flight is OK. But sitting all night in an economy seat does, for most of us, wreck the next day. So have you really lost anything worthwhile?

Second, there is the health thing. I have not seen any statistical evidence that people are less likely to suffer from deep vein thrombosis if they take day-flights, but it seems common sense that if you walk about and wiggle your ankles you will be in better shape.

Third, you have six quiet uninterrupted hours to read or write. These words are being written just south of Newfoundland at 37,000 feet in the back of BA178. Not a full day's work, true, but words that won't have to be written in the office tomorrow.

Fourth, there is the tail wind. Typically the jet-stream can run at 100mph or more heading east, so that a flight scheduled at six-and-a-half hours may only take six. From Boston it can be five-and-a-half hours. At night the jet-stream is a nuisance: you have just about managed to get to sleep and it is time to wake up again. By day, it makes a not-very-long trip even shorter. Travel with hand luggage and it really is possible to be in London in time for a dinner party - it makes for a stylish entrance if a slightly irritating one for your friends.

Fifth, congestion - or rather the lack of it. International departure areas at the East Coast gateway airports are echoingly empty at 7am, and the chances of a clear run for take-off are high because planes are not fighting for departure slots. And arriving at Heathrow mid-evening can be a pleasantly uncrowded surprise compared with the queues - both to land, and at passport control - early in the morning.

Finally, there are the views: from New York, the run up the coast of Long Island and the sight of Cape Cod and Martha's Vineyard; from Washington, you also get a glimpse to the left of New York itself. Sure, you get these views on the way in, but then you are tired and thinking about the hassles of arrival. To fly over the summer playgrounds of the East Coast elite is an emblematic way to say goodbye to America.

Not convinced? Try the day-flight and I promise you that if you can possibly help it, you will never sit up all night again.