The red-eye

My week-long trip to Darwin will end this evening when my wife and I will travel to the airport around 11.30 pm for our red-eye flight home. A red-eye flight is one that is scheduled to depart around midnight and arrive at its destination the next morning. We leave Darwin at 1.15 am and arrive in Melbourne at 5.50 am. I am sure we will have red eyes on leaving the flight and be tired for the rest of the day.

So why does Darwin have so many red-eye flights? Apparently, it is due to the lack of curfew at Darwin and a low number of flights. This drives the airlines to schedule more red-eye flights out of the Darwin market to maximise their fleet utilisation at other Australian airports.

I still booked a night’s accommodation for this evening, even though we will check out before midnight. It will give us a place to refresh ourselves before we leave. Who knows, we may even get a few hours of sleep before we fly out.