RED-EYE

noun Also written red eye (Lifestyle and Leisure) In colloquial use: an overnight flight, especially one on which the traveller crosses one or more time-zones. Etymology: So named because the passengers can be expected to arrive red-eyed from lack of sleep. History and Usage: The term red-eye (at first in attributive form, as red-eye flight or red-eye special) has been in colloquial use in the US since at least the late sixties. In the late eighties, with transatlantic commuting a reality, it became a fashionable term among British business executives for the overnight flight from New York to London; arriving at breakfast time on such a flight, the traveller has a full business day ahead and a time difference of five or six hours to cope with. Three days ago (is it?) I flew in on a red-eye from New York. I practically had the airplane to myself. Martin Amis London Fields (1989), p. 1 Participants...were ushered aboard the late night 'red eye' for the non-stop flight to Tokyo. Gramophone Feb. 1990, p. 1547