How to use the layover time calculator
- Enter the landing time and the next departure as they appear on your tickets, in the local time of each airport.
- Pick the departure day. Leave it on Same day for a short connection, or choose Next day or a later day for an overnight stop.
- Optionally set time to connect, the minutes you want to keep for walking, security or a change of terminal. The page then tells you how much time is spare, or how short you are.
- Open More options only if the two times are written in different time zones. Choose the UTC offset for each one.
Formula
UTC minute = local minutes - UTC offset in minutes
layover = departure UTC minute + days x 1,440 - landing UTC minute
Both times are placed on one timeline measured in UTC minutes. The difference is the layover. If you leave both offsets at +00:00, the offsets cancel and the layover is just the difference between the two clock times plus any extra days.
Landing at 14:10, leaving at 17:00
With both offsets left at +00:00, the landing is minute 850 of the day (14 x 60 + 10) and the departure is minute 1,020 (17 x 60). The layover is 1,020 - 850 = 170 minutes, which is 2 hours 50 minutes. Against the example 60 minutes to connect, that leaves 1 hour 50 minutes to spare.
An overnight example: landing at 22:30 and departing at 06:15 the next day is 465 minutes, or 7 hours 45 minutes. For two time zones, landing at 09:00 at UTC-05:00 and departing at 18:00 at UTC+01:00 on the same day is 14:00 UTC to 17:00 UTC, so 3 hours.
Reading the result
Airlines print every flight time in the local time of the airport it refers to, so a landing time and a departure time at the same airport are already in the same zone. In that case you never need the UTC offsets. They matter when you copy one time from a message that uses your home time zone, or when a trip includes a change of country that you track in a second zone.
The time to connect is deliberately yours to set. The right figure depends on the airport, whether you must change terminals or clear immigration, and whether your bags are checked through. This page does not look up any minimum connection time, so use the guidance from your airline or the airport and treat the number here as a planning aid.
When a layover is long
A layover of a day or longer changes your planning: you may need a hotel, a visa for the country you are passing through, or a separate ticket. The page adds a note when the layover reaches 24 hours. To plan the trip around it, see the Trip Budget Planner, and use the When to Leave for the Airport Calculator to work back from a departure time.
Assumptions and limits
- Times are read exactly as you enter them, in 24-hour form. Delays, early landings and gate changes are not modeled.
- Offsets are fixed numbers of hours and minutes from UTC. Daylight saving time changes an offset, so use the one in effect on your travel date.
- A departure that is not after the landing is refused, because the layover would be zero or negative.
- Nothing is uploaded. The arithmetic runs in your browser.
Frequently asked questions
How do I calculate a layover between two flights?
Subtract the landing time from the departure time, adding 24 hours for each day that passes. Landing at 14:10 and leaving at 17:00 gives 2 hours 50 minutes. The calculator above does the same, and it can also place the two times on a common clock when they are in different zones.
Do I need to enter time zones for a layover?
Usually not. Both times belong to the same airport, so they are in the same zone already. Use the UTC offsets in More options only when the two times are written in different zones, for example one in your home time and one in local time.
How long should a layover be?
That depends on the airport, the airline and what you must do between flights. This page does not set a recommended length. It subtracts the time you say you need and shows what is left, so you can compare your own number with the layover.
How is an overnight layover entered?
Set the departure day to Next day, or to a later day, and enter the departure clock time as printed. A 22:30 landing and a 06:15 departure the next day make a layover of 7 hours 45 minutes.