Comments on update

[Chris Carrier]

Gwillim Law > INTERNET:gwil at mindspring.com wrote on the
Subj:  Timezone changes reported in IATA manual
 
>I've received the February 1997 edition of the Standard Schedules
>Information Manual, published by the International Air Transport
>Association (IATA).  This manual has an appendix of international time zone
>information, which is intended for use by member airlines in generating and
>interpreting their service schedules.  I compared it line by line with the
>previous (September 1996) edition.  This is a report on the differences.
 
Thank you for your report.
 
>Brazil has changed the end of DST from the second to the first Sunday in
>October, starting in 1996.  (Actually, the rule implied by previous manuals
>was Oct Sun>10 or Sun>11, from 1993 to 1997.)
 
I presume you mean "beginning of DST" rather than end, because all of Brazil
that uses DST is substantially south of the equator, IIRC.
 
>Georgia has gone on year-round standard time using its former DST offset,
>probably by failing to change the clocks back in October, 1996.
 
This may have been only a one-year thing, as I remember someone quoting
Georgia's President, Schevrednaze (I believe that is the spelling) saying that
Georgia would be remaining on DST "this winter" (1996-7) "to save energy."
 
Anyone heard anything about permanent change in Georgia?
 
>Kyrgyzstan has changed the end of DST from the last Sunday in September to
>the last Tuesday in October, starting in 1998.  This may be a typo in the
>manual.  If it said Sep 26 instead of Oct 26, that would be consistent with
>the old rule.  Besides, Tuesday is a rather unusual day for DST to end on.
 
I tend to think typo as well, but they may have changed to the last Sunday in
October; as you said, Tuesday is an unusual day for a time change.
 
>Sri Lanka has set its clocks back a half hour.  There's no evidence in the
>manuals as to when this took effect.
 
Which should make its most famous citizen very happy!  (Arthur C. Clarke has
been advocating this for >30 years.)
 
>There were three other entries in the manual where I am convinced that IATA
>made an error.  I fixed the errors and didn't list them as changes above.
>Just for the record, here they are.  The manual says that:
 
>(1) Gibraltar has moved its winter time an hour earlier, but not its summer
>time, so that in the winter it matches the United Kingdom and in the Summer
>it matches mainland Spain, with a two-hour change each time.
 
I actually believe this may not be an error.  I called up AT&T International
Operator twice on two successive nights and they said they have no listing for
Gibraltar.  I asked for the time in Morocco and was given GMT.  Now given that
Gibraltar is a British possession and is next to both Morocco and Spain, I can
see them staying on GMT in winter and Spanish time in summer.  To move in one
year from standard time to two hours of DST and back to standard, either in
one jump (Newfoundland 1988) or in two one hour jumps (UK 1947) can happen
from time to time.
 
BTW, I'm less convinced than I used to be of the infallibility of AT&T,
although I still consider it to be the best source available for current time
data.  This is because they moved the EU back to standard time on 1996 Sep 29,
and a couple of weeks later, moved them back ahead, only to then move them
back on the actual date of October 27.
 
Would like to ask: is Mexico going to go on DST in 1997 and after?
 
Chris Carrier