PASSENGERS will “fly back in time” tonight when their flight takes off from Hong Kong in 2025 and lands in Los Angeles in 2024.
A group of people will have the opportunity to toast the New Year twice thanks to crossing the International Date Line (IDL) during their flight.
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The IDL is an imaginary line that crosses the Pacific Ocean and that delimits two consecutive calendar dates.
In other words, anyone who crosses the IDL traveling east will lose one day and those who go west will gain one day.
Therefore, these passengers will depart Hong Kong in the early hours of New Year’s Day and arrive in Los Angeles on New Year’s Eve.
The IDL has no international legal status, but is widely understood as the separation between the Eastern and Western hemispheres.
Those on board the Cathay Pacific flight from Hong Kong will have another night of celebrations when they land in the US around 8 p.m.
The US National Ocean Service said: “When you cross the date line, you become a kind of time traveler!
“Cross to the west and it will be a day later; Cross back and you will have ‘gone back in time.'”
So, for anyone looking to keep the party going this year, perhaps time travel is the splendid solution.
This comes as New Year’s Eve celebrations are beginning (or have already ended) around the world.
In London, the iconic New Year’s Eve fireworks will go ahead as planned at midnight despite serious concerns about the weather.
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A spokesperson for the Mayor of London confirmed the event will go ahead and revelers are already preparing for the move to 2025.
Ticket holders for the event and the “many millions of spectators around the world” should be prepared for “a spectacular night of fireworks from the banks of the Thames to welcome the new year,” the spokesperson added.
