[Speedbird1994]

I have booked to fly BA to Morocco next month, and just received an email today advising of a flight time change. Coming back from Marrakech, the flight is now leaving an hour earlier (18:45 instead of 19:45) but is still due to arrive back into Gatwick at 23:10. It doesn’t make much difference that the flight is leaving earlier, but why on earth is this? Is it an error? Is it a route that has been delayed a lot, and BA are allowing extra schedule packing? (although an hour seems excessive). What on earth is going on?

Ps. I have just checked BA.com, and on the flight out it is showing the expected flight time of 2:50. Coming back it is now advising a flight time of 4:25. WTF?

[icenspice]

It may be that Ramadan starts very shortly and the time difference goes a bit haywire!

[capetonianm]

Without looking at the flight details, just a guess, that it might for some reason have a stop en route. It would be slightly unusual but is possible.

Edit : Having looked at schedules, they are all nonstop but there are differences of up to an hour in this month’s schedule, but for JUN they all show 4:30 or 4:25:

1 BA2667 7 RAK 1 LGW S 1230 1700 0 21MAY17 21MAY17 319 4:30
2 BA2667 2 RAK 1 LGW S 1755 2220 0 23MAY17 27JUN17 320 4:25
3 BA2667 3 RAK 1 LGW S 1845 2310 0 24MAY17 24MAY17 320 4:25
4 BA2667 5 RAK 1 LGW S 1940 2305 0 05MAY17 19MAY17 319 3:25
5 BA2667 4 RAK 1 LGW S 1940 2305 0 11MAY17 18MAY17 320 3:25
6 BA2667 1 RAK 1 LGW S 1940 0005+1 0 22MAY17 29MAY17 319 4:25
7 BA2667 36 RAK 1 LGW S 1945 2310 0 17MAY17 20MAY17 320 3:25

I am unable to offer an explanation!

[FDOS_UK]

DST ends on 21 May and then restarts on 1 July. (i.e. for Ramadan).

It is to shorten the evening period, so people can break their fast earlier.

[capetonianm]

Thanks. It did occur to me that there might have been a change in local time but that seemed so improbable I didn’t even put that theory forward. Sometimes truth is stranger than fiction!

[Speedbird1994]

Thank you for this. So what does this mean? Are the new schedules correct? Is the 4 and a half hour flight time simply an error of the time difference?

[capetonianm]

… and I thought Ramadan was later in the year but what do I know about religion!

[capetonianm]

The EFT is a constant (more or less) unless there’s an intermediate stop. 3h30 in this case.

If RAK time is the same as LON, the apparent (i.e. clock) time will be (more or less) the same in each direction, but if RAK time is 1 hour earlier than LON, the apparent time will be an hour longer northbound and an hour less southbound, so one flight will appear to take 4h30 and the other 2h30.

I know what I mean but I haven’t explained it very well. Put it down to a fair amount of wine with dinner!

[alainboy56]

Ramadan this year will start approx May 27th – wa alhamdulillah! And don’t we all so look forward to it!
Marocco in particular does have strange coincidences to GMT. I have worked (and lived) there on and off for more than 10 years and if the King declares it – 1hr tomorrow, then it is -1hr!

[Speedbird1994]

Thank you for this! I knew that we are travelling during Ramadan, but didn’t realise it affected the time. Interesting to hear that Morocco can change local time so quickly!

[icenspice]

Trying hard to work out why my post was deemed inappropriate?

[FDOS_UK]

[quote quote=807940]Trying hard to work out why my post was deemed inappropriate?

[/quote]

The ‘report’ buttom is midway between the reply and quote buttons, so probably a case of fat finger syndrome and nothing you wrote 🙂

[Speedbird1994]

It wasn’t me! Unless I caught it by accident which I apologise for! Can’t see how it would purposely be deemed inappropriate.

[CathayLoyalist2]

Icenspice, I think you will find that whomever forget to disengage their auto offend flight controls!!

[C M K Traveller]

There may be a time change in Morocco. Worth checking with the embassy.

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