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Daylight savings time returning to Egypt on 7 July
Ahram Online , Thursday 28 Apr 2016

The Egyptian cabinet announced on Thursday that daylight savings time will return to Egypt starting 7 July until the end of October.

Daylight savings time, which had for years seen clocks put forward one hour in the summer, was canceled last April in a decision by Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi.

The system was scrapped following a public poll that showed a majority did not support applying daylight savings time in Egypt.

First implemented in the country in 1988, the system was introduced as a power-saving measure prolonging daylight hours.

It was abolished in April 2011 after the uprising that toppled autocrat Hosni Mubarak, with the government arguing at the time that the practice was ineffective at curbing power usage.

The system was temporarily revived in May 2014 in order to ease consumption after the country saw rolling power blackouts.

In the summer of that year, Egypt changed the clock four times, first applying daylight savings time, and then suspending it during the Islamic holy month of Ramadan to shorten the daily dawn-to-dusk fast.

Egypt is normally two hours ahead of Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) and Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) — meaning it was three hours ahead when daylight saving time was applied.

http://english.ahram.org.eg/News/204655.aspx

Do you think that Daylight Saving makes any real difference to daily and economical life in Egypt?

It makes not a jot of difference to the duration of the hours of daylight, but it may have some effect on how those hours are used.

Back in the late 1960s the UK experimented with permanent daylight saving time. I of course objected to this and maintained GMT throughout this experiment. It suited me well as I was an undergraduate astronomer at the time.

Friday morning, a friend was lucky enough to catch her 10:30 flight Cairo - London, leaving 9:30!

http://english.ahram.org.eg/News/204720.aspx


EgyptAir asks customers to arrive early at airports due to daylight savings postponement.

Customers are asked to be present on Friday at airports four hours prior to international flights and two hours prior to domestic flights; see information inside
Ahram Online , Friday 29 Apr 2016

Daylight savings time in Egypt postponed to 7 July

Egyptian national airline EgyptAir urged its customers to arrive at airports on Friday four hours prior to departure for international flights and two hours prior for domestic flights due to the postponement of daylight saving's time in Egypt, an official statement said.
The Egyptian cabinet announced Thursday that daylight savings time would start 7 July and - instead of today - and last until the end of October.

Egypt is normally two hours ahead of Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) and Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) — meaning clocks in Egypt were three hours ahead of GMT when daylight savings time was last applied in 2014.

The confusion caused by the Daylight Saving last minute cancellation has affected 15% of domestic trips from Cairo International Airport as many travelers ran late for their flights, said head of Egypt's national carrier EgyptAir Hisham Al-Nahas, according to Ahram Arabic newswebsite.

International trips from the country were not affected, El-Nahas said.

Late passengers were provided seats in following flights with no penalty fees imposed, he added.

EgyptAir asked its customers to contact its call centre in Egypt or visit its official website to find updated flight times.

The airline's call centre's number in Egypt can be reached at 090070000 from any landline or 1717 from any mobile phone.

EgyptAir's official website is http://www.egyptair.com

Quite a bit of chaos at Hurghada airport yesterday with flights arriving an hour earlier than expected.

Several people flying from Cairo for the Easter holiday had to run to catch their flight...and then wait at HRG for their transfer .

Thomas Cook from UK seem to have been very late in picking up that Egypt is GMT +2 at the moment..

Expect further problems on and after 7th July!

The Easter holiday has seen a considerable influx of Egyptians - a welcome boost for trade still suffering from the downturn in foreign tourist numbers.

"In the summer of that year, Egypt changed the clock four times, first applying daylight savings time, and then suspending it during the Islamic holy month of Ramadan to shorten the daily dawn-to-dusk fast."

Im not being obtuse here - I really genuinely dont understand how changing the clock can shorten the dawn to dusk fast. Surely whatever time of the clock you give it, its still dawn to dusk, so you still get the same number of hours fasting? Am I wrong?

Hatusu I asked exactly the same thing at the time, the sun doesn't change! I was told it was connected to working hours, people finishing work & then travelling to their homes. The hour shift meant they had arrived at their destination earlier, in time to break their fast at home without dusk coming part way through the journey

Then why is the change only being made AFTER Ramadan ends?

Now I'M confused

Sunset in June is around 6.30pm so someone finishing work at 6pm would have to rush . If they put the clocks forward in June (during Ramadan) it would move sunset to 7.30pm.

Can't see the point in a post Ramadan shift.

Just remind me on the day! as I don't really bother too much with time, day or even month whilst in Egypt...'cheers....

There was a previous announcement that Daylight Saving Time could be introduced on 29th April 2016. It seems that only EgyptAir had acted on this, and they caused a lot of chaos.

Someone did not spot the difference between could and would!

It's pandemonium with the Egyptair flights into HRG.

Several have arrived an hour early...including the last one tonight!

Maybe they'll fix their schedules .......bokra insh'allah.