One hour behind Namibia: Europe switches to winter time

From Sunday, the flight from Europe to Namibia will apparently be one hour shorter than before. But only apparently. This is because Europe is switching to winter time. Meaning that for the next six months, passengers will have to set their clocks one hour forward when landing in Namibia.

In Europe, summer time ends on Saturday night in order to save energy (see article on Wikipedia). At 3.00 am, the clocks will be set back by one hour to 2.00 am – to normal Central European Time (CET).

This puts Namibia one hour ahead. Nevertheless, there is no jet lag to speak of. The direct and indirect return flights take place at night. You take off in the afternoon or evening and land at your destination in the morning.

As a direct flight takes around ten hours, you don't really lose any sleep. In addition, every Namibia holidaymaker gets the lost hour back on the return flight. Unless it takes place after the last Sunday in March.

This is when European winter time ends. During European summer time, Namibia and Europe are on the same time again.

By the way: until 2017, Namibia was one hour behind Europe during the European summer. This is because the land of endless horizons, whose rhythm is actually determined by the sun, also had its time switch.

However, after nationwide consultations, it was abolished. Since then, Namibia has been on Central African Time (CAF) all year round. Read more about this in the article 'Namibian Time' in our 'Travel Advice' section.

Sven-Eric Stender