Daylight saving ends: Sydney airport tells customers to double check time zones as clocks go back

With the clocks being wound back an hour as daylight savings ends this weekend, Sydney Airport has reminded travellers to double check time zones to avoid travel chaos.

On Sunday morning residents of the five states and territories which observe daylight saving will wind back clocks from 3am to 2am. 

Those heading to airports before or after the time change are urged to double check flight schedules, with flight durations as well as arrival and departure times changing as the country reverts to standard time.

Sydney Airport’s TikTok page shared a friendly nudge to travellers to check their boarding times, saying that while it was ‘looking forward to the extra hour of sleep’, travellers needed to check departure and arrival times with daylight saving in mind.

‘Hey all, just letting you know that daylight saving time ends on 2 April 2023,’ the airport’s social media manager posted.

‘So double check your departure/arrival time.’

Daylight saving exists to make the most of natural daylight.

This is achieved by moving clocks forward an hour during spring and moving them back to standard time in the autumn.

In Australia, five out of the eight states and territories take part in daylight saving.

Northern Territory, Queensland and Western Australia do not, leaving their sleep schedules unchanged all year round.

At the start and end of daylight saving, airports can be chaotic locations due to flight schedules changing. Flight duration times as well as airport arrival and departure times change with the times observed by each state and territory (pictured: Sydney airport queues)

At 2am on the first Sunday in October, clocks move forward an hour to 3am in the Australian Capital Territory, New South Wales, South Australia, Tasmania and Victoria.

Six months later, on the first Sunday in April, daylight saving time ends at 3am and those five states and territories return to standard time.

With clocks set to return to Australian Central Standard Time on Sunday, east coast states will no longer see a one-hour difference in time to Queensland and the time difference to Western Australia will return to just two hours.

After 3am Sunday, the Northern Territory and South Australia will be half an hour behind the east coast’s time.