EgyptAir could lose up to $2 million if daylight saving time cancelled: Chairman

EgyptAir could lose up to $2 million if parliament votes for cancelling daylight saving time, originally announced to begin 5 July; state news agency MENA quoted the chairman of the public company as saying.

In April, the government already announced that daylight saving time would be applied by the first week of July until the end of October.

However, a parliament subcommittee agreed this month on cancelling the practice, thus putting the decision to a vote in front of the entire parliament.

EgyptAir Chairman Safwat Mosallam said, “Either way, cancelled or not, the company would deal flexibly with the parliament’s decision.”

The International Aviation Transport Association (IATA), according to Mosallam, has already been informed that daylight saving would be applied in July.

Backtracking on the decision, if parliament votes to cancel daylight saving time, this would cause a number of delays in flights and would cause many passengers to miss their connections, Mosallam added.

Last week, Minister of Parliamentary Affairs Magdy Al-Agati told parliament that the Egyptian government paid $8 million to the IATA after the state did not apply daylight saving time in April.

Parliament speaker Ali Abdel-Al said last week that the House of Representatives has not yet set a final date for the end of daylight saving time, as it is awaiting the State Council’s final advisory opinion on the matter.

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 power consumption after the country saw rolling power blackouts.

Egypt is normally two hours ahead of Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) and Greenwich Mean Time (GMT), meaning it would be three hours ahead if daylight saving time is applied.

source: Ahram Online