Eager party-goers and optimists celebrated the coming of the new year worldwide recently. For many, the festivities include fireworks, lights, dancing, and frivolity. However, for the passengers of Cathay Pacific Flight 880, the path of their airplane flight meant celebrating the new year twice: once in Hong Kong and again after landing at LAX. Better yet, the flight afforded the passengers the odd bragging right of flying back in time from 2025 to 2024. 

The passengers of Cathay Pacific Flight 880 had the rare treat of celebrating the new year more than once

Okay, so maybe it’s not a literal flying time machine. It’s not like the crew and passengers of Cathay Pacific Flight 880 flew through a science-fiction-esque wormhole and ended up 70 years in the past. But the airplane flight’s timing does put it in rarified air. The Boeing 777 took off in 2025 and landed in 2024.

The Cathay Pacific flight departed Hong Kong International Airport just after midnight on January 1, 2025, with New Year’s Eve celebrators buckled in on the flight. The flight typically takes around 12 hours. It’s a long flight and a bit disoriented for passengers heading to their destination with clocks showing 16 hours behind their origins.

According to ABC News, the Cathay Pacific flight crossed the international dateline around six hours into its journey. The airplane touched down at Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) at around 8:30 p.m. Pacific Standard Time (PST) on December 31, 2024. Plenty of time to ring in the new year in Southern California. 

These sorts of odd time zone-related things happen. I was returning from Australia just in time for my birthday 10 years ago. We took off, bound for March Air Force Base in California by way of Guam. 

Aside from a buddy of mine insisting that “Everyone in the terminal with a cupcake in their hands better sing [Happy Birthday],” the length of my birthday was perhaps the most bizarre part of the whole ordeal. That birthday extended well beyond the standard 24 hours.