Daylight Savings Time Cancelled in Egypt

After a long debate as to whether to cancel or observe Daylight Savings Time, Egypt’s cabinet has allegedly decided to cancel it.

Confusion is running rampant in Egypt, as just last week Minister of Parliamentary Affairs Magdi Al Agati claimed that Daylight Savings Time would be restored as of July 8th and end once the parliament issued a law to abolish it.

However, on Monday, the cabinet released a statement suggesting that they "had decided not to implement daylight savings time in light of the parliament's amendment to stop [the system] and not applying it in the future."

The basis for the decision by the cabinet seems to be to avoid having to cast a vote cancelling it later after Eid Al-Fitr Holiday. This decision will likely not please EgyptAir's chairman, who explained earlier this week that the decision to cancel could cost the airline up to $2 million due to scheduling conflicts.

The whole purpose of exercising Daylight Savings is to conserve energy and was first implemented in Egypt in 1988, before it was cancelled in April 2011. At the time, the government explained it wasn’t an effective method of energy conservation, but temporarily revived in 2014, when the country was dealing with blackouts.