Time in Cairo

Few countries have changed their minds about summer time as often as Egypt. It observed daylight saving for decades, abolished it in 2011, restored it in 2014 with a pause during Ramadan, dropped it again in 2015, and in 2016 cancelled a planned switch only days before it was due, leaving phones and airline systems an hour wrong. Summer time returned in 2023 as an energy-saving measure, and the government has kept it each year since.

The current rule is unusual: clocks go forward at midnight at the start of the last Friday of April and go back at midnight at the end of the last Thursday of October. In 2026 that meant April 24 and the night of October 29 to 30. Because those dates differ from both the European and the American schedules, Cairo's gap with London and New York shifts several times a year.

The weekend is Friday and Saturday, so the working week runs Sunday to Thursday. Government offices typically open around 8:00 or 9:00 and close by 15:00, while private companies often work 9:00 to 17:00. The Egyptian Exchange (EGX) trades from 10:00 to 14:30, Sunday to Thursday. During Ramadan official working hours are shortened, and the rhythm of the city moves into the evening after iftar.

Most of the year Cairo is seven hours ahead of New York, so 9:00 AM in New York is 4:00 PM in Cairo, and two hours ahead of London. From the second Sunday of March to the last Friday of April the New York gap is six hours and London is only one hour behind; for a few days around late October Cairo is three hours ahead of London. The EET to EST page and the time zone converter handle those shifts. Daylight ranges from about 14 hours in June, with sunset near 8:00 PM under summer time, to about 10 hours 13 minutes in December, when the sun sets just before 5:00 PM.