Featured Map for 29 December 2023:
Back from the Future

(Updated with details of the actual flights plus mention of Talofa Airways.)

As 2023 winds down and as 2024 looms, interminable with its extra day, some might want to recover that leap day to extend 2023 just a bit more. Then again, you might just want to get over 2023 and move on.

If you're in the first group, you're in luck. Pang Yee Huat used data from Cirium to identify six flights scheduled to depart in 2024 yet arrive in 2023, findings which he posted on LinkedIn. Half ot those flights are on Cathay Pacific, departing Hong Kong just after midnight for the west coast of North America (Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Vancouver). All Nippon (ANA) similar offers a post-midnight departure from Tokyo, also to Los Angeles.

If you prefer islands and/or morning departures, Air New Zealand offers a flight from Auckland to Rarotonga, and United offers a domestic(!) flight from Guam to Honolulu. (Alas, the United flight is over six hours late so will miss arriving in 2023.)

Flight	Route	Departs	Arrives	Equipment
CX 880	HKG-LAX	12:15 am	8:55 pm -1	777-367ER (B-KQU)
CX 872	HKG-SFO	12:55 am	9:00 pm -1	A350-941 (B-LRL)
CX 888	HKG-YVR	1:00 am	8:30 pm -1	777-367ER (B-KQZ)
NH 106	HND-LAX	12:50 am	5:50 pm -1	787-9 (JA872A)
NZ 946	AKL-RAR	8:50 am	1:30 pm -1	787-9 (ZK-NZR)
UA 200	GUM-HNL	7:35 am	6:50 pm -1	777-322ER (N2747U)

Today's Featured Map shows these six retrograde flights across the International Date Line.

Honorable mention goes to Talofa Airways, which normally operates seven daily flights from Apia in Samoa to Pago Pago in American Samoa, a 93-mile (150-km) trip back in time across the International Date Line scheduled for 30 minutes in 9-seat Rockwell 690B Turbo Commander aircraft, but neither the airline's web site nor flight-tracking services show the flights departing on New Year's Day.

(Some Featured Maps come together easily, such as this one based on data graciously shared by Pang Yee Huat. Others stumble, either due to challenges obtaining the necessary data or because the resulting map ended up being more cluttered than informative. A Boxing Day post earlier this week befell this curse, but hopefully will recover to appear in the new year. It's an interesting story. Meanwhile, your ideas for Featured Maps are welcome, especially if they come with solid data from which to work.)

References and additional information:

• Celebrate The New Year – Twice! – Pang Yee Huat on LinkedIn
• Cirium
• FlightAware
• Planespotters.net
  
  
• Cathay Pacific
• All Nippon Airways
• Air New Zealand
• United Airlines
• Talofa Airways
  
  
• Cher – If I Could Turn Back Time (Official Video) – YouTube