Flying from Madrid to Barcelona?
Add a departure date and see which side gets the sun.
Flying from Madrid to Barcelona?
Add a departure date and see which side gets the sun.
Flying from Madrid to Barcelona?
Add a departure date and see which side gets the sun.
Madrid → Barcelona
A short flight within Spain. No clock change on arrival.
The heart of Spain
Madrid sits high and dry on Spain's central plateau, a wide, grid-and-boulevard capital with no coast and a continental climate of hot summers and cold winters. It is one of Europe's more transit-friendly capitals: an extensive metro plus commuter rail covers the city and reaches the airport directly, and the historic core is easy to walk. Spanish life runs late, with dinner and the evening rhythm starting well after dark by other European standards. A car is rarely useful inside the city center.
Surrounding hubs
| 547 km / 340 mi | |
| 725 km / 450 mi | |
| 869 km / 540 mi |
The Catalan capital
Barcelona is wedged between the Mediterranean and a ring of hills, a dense grid city built around Gaudi's architecture and a historic Gothic core near the waterfront. The metro is extensive and reaches the airport directly, and most of the city is easy to cross on foot, bike, or rail. It is the capital of Catalonia, a region with its own language and a strong, distinct sense of identity from the rest of Spain. Beaches sit right at the edge of the city grid, unusual for a major European urban center.
Nearby airports
| 202 km / 126 mi |
Surrounding hubs
| 721 km / 448 mi | |
| 766 km / 476 mi | |
| 827 km / 514 mi |
Find out which side of the plane to sit on.
Pick your airports, set your departure time, and you're done.
We calculate the sun's position based on your flight path and departure time, then tell you which side of the plane gets direct sun and which stays shaded. No guessing, just math.
Enter your flight
Pick your departure and arrival airports and set your departure time at the departure airport. FlightSide estimates the duration and you can adjust it if you know the exact schedule.
We track the sun along your route
Your flight path is broken into hundreds of points. At each one we check where the sun is and which side of the plane it faces.
You get a recommendation
Which side of the plane to sit on, left or right, depending on whether you'd rather avoid the sun or enjoy it. The percentages and the map are there if you want to see why.
Want to go deeper? Accuracy, edge cases, polar routes — see the FAQ →
Notes from the product.
Small updates, route observations, and clearer explanations for how the app keeps evolving.
Type less, wait less, wonder more
Airport search now understands metro codes and old city names, FlightSide loads noticeably faster, and a new Feeling lucky button chooses a flight for anyone without one in mind.
A closer look at the route, not just the seat
FlightSide now shows the two cities and key details about the flight alongside the seat recommendation: confirm you picked the right airports, read the time change off two clocks, and check the return leg.
It's all about the sun (after all)
Not all sunlight reaches the side windows. FlightSide now weighs the sun’s angle to the cabin and shows twilight along the route.