dailynewsnblog
Congress is currently looking at a bill that would make daylight saving time in the US permanent if it were implemented. According to CBS News, advocates of the bill have argued that the longer winter evenings would have a positive impact when it comes to reducing energy use. However, alongside health professionals wary of the impacts of cold, dark mornings, airlines have spoken out against the bill.
Indeed, major commercial aviation advocacy groups in the United States, such as Airlines for America, have argued that this change, while seemingly small at face value, would have a considerable knock-on effect on the airline industry. They argue that it could take years for the sector to adjust to such an alteration, with the resulting operational changes being very expensive. Let’s examine the argument.
Airlines Are Against Permanent Daylight Saving Time
According to reporting on the matter by Reuters, Congress voted heavily in favor of the bill to make daylight saving time a permanent fixture, with 308 votes in favor of the proposal compared to just 117 who voted against it, thus sending it to the Senate. If adopted, this would see the usual November clock change not occur, with Airlines for America having made its position on the matter abundantly clear.
Indeed, in a statement on the matter that it released earlier this week, the group said that “changes to existing Daylight Saving Time would have considerable implications for aviation.” These, it says, would “include passenger disruption, crew and aircraft positioning, and domestic and international connectivity issues.” As such, A4A argues that, if such changes were made, they should not be rushed, adding:
“Airlines operate expansive interconnected domestic and global networks that are reliant on stability and predictability. Any changes would need an implementation timeline that reflects these global complications.”
The Industry Would Not Simply Be Able To Adjust Overnight
As previously noted, American clocks are next set to change (or not change, if the bill is passed) in November. However, detractors of the bill from the airline industry argue that such a short turnaround would be insufficient when it comes to getting airlines ready for the change. Indeed, CBS notes that advocacy groups argue that a 24-month timescale would be more realistic in terms of adjusting schedules.
CBS quoted a further statement from A4A, which said that “airline schedules, websites, reservation systems, crew scheduling, payroll, and the implementation of IT fixes both at the air carriers and any impacted vendors” would all need attention. Clearly, such fixes are not ones that can be implemented overnight. According to VOZ, even a more optimistic estimate still puts the timescale at six to 12 months to fix.
VOZ cites aviation industry analyst Henry Harteveldt as saying that, while the current switches already cause some confusion timing-wise, a permanent switch would amplify these issues. Specifically, he says that flyers sometimes miss flights after time changes, but, “without proper technical support, these failures would multiply on an unprecedented scale” if permanent daylight savings were rushed into use.
Airlines Have Been Burned Before By Such Changes
Government decisions concerning the implementation of daylight saving time have already had considerable implications on other nations’ commercial aviation industries over the years. Most notably, Lebanese flag carrier Middle East Airlines was forced to rejig its schedules in March of 2023 after the government of Lebanon reversed its decision to postpone daylight saving time. This caused technical issues.
It was expected that these issues would take 48 hours to be resolved following the last-minute reversal. This meant that airlines flying out of Rafic Hariri International Airport (BEY) in Beirut, where Middle East Airlines is the largest operator, had their departures moved forward by an hour, with the original schedules only being reinstated the next month. In some cases, the same flight had two departure times listed!
