The clocks going forward by one hour at 01:00 local time on Sunday 29 March 2026 across most of Europe mark the annual switch to Irish Summer Time and Central European Summer Time. This transition shortens the night of 28 to 29 March by one hour, meaning shorter turnaround times and operational challenges for airlines even though carriers plan their summer schedules well in advance to minimise disruption.
Airline timetables themselves see little visible change for passengers because published departure and arrival times already reflect the new summer clock settings that take effect on 29 March. Most airlines align the start of their summer 2026 flight programmes with the clock change so that early morning Sunday services are timetabled in the advanced local time.
Where minor retimings occur they usually involve shifting affected overnight or pre-dawn flights by up to sixty minutes to preserve realistic connections and crew duty limits while the actual airborne duration of each flight remains unchanged. International routes crossing time zones that do not observe the change may show an apparent one-hour difference in elapsed time on passenger itineraries but the underlying flight plans continue to operate on coordinated universal time.
The most noticeable impact falls on aircraft turnaround times between landing and the next departure. Minimum turnaround periods are measured in real elapsed minutes rather than clock time and the lost hour compresses ground operations for any aircraft on the ground during the transition window. An aircraft scheduled to land at 01:20 and depart at 02:50 for example will have only thirty minutes of actual working time instead of ninety minutes once the clocks jump forward. This squeezes cleaning refuelling security checks baggage handling and passenger boarding and can force airlines to delay departures add extra buffer time or cancel tight connections on the transition morning. Carriers such as Ryanair, easyJet, British Airways and Lufthansa routinely build extra slack into overnight rosters and ground handling contracts for this weekend to protect on-time performance.
Overall the effects remain manageable and are an annual occurrence with no widespread cancellations expected provided ground teams and crews follow pre-planned adjustments. Passengers are advised to confirm flight status directly with their airline on 29 March particularly for early departures as minor delays may arise from the compressed turnaround window.
