In an unusual move, a new time zone will take effect in South America from the 1st of May. As part of a measure to battle an energy crisis in Venezuela, the president also gave the public sector every Friday off until at least June 6th – to save electricity.
In addition, the entire country will change timezone from UTC -4h30 to UTC-4 from 01MAY, to ensure more daylight in the evening when energy consumption peaks.
At SVMI/Simon Bolivar, Primary radar has been off the air since 04APR – and remains out of service until the end of May – it’s unclear if this is electricity related.
If operating to Venezuela after 01MAY, local time will therefore be 4 hours behind UTC.
More on the topic:
- More: Everyone Loves Greece
- More: CPDLC Gotcha: Clearance Busts
- More: New EU Passenger Screening Requirements Demystified
- More: The DOs and DON’Ts of Controlled Rest
- More: Declassified: New Crew Rules in Japan
More reading:
- Latest: Everyone Loves Greece
- Latest: CPDLC Gotcha: Clearance Busts
- Latest: New EU Passenger Screening Requirements Demystified
- Safe Airspace: Risk Database
- Weekly Ops Bulletin: Subscribe
- Membership plans: Why join OPSGROUP?
Get the famous weekly 
Thanks Guillermo, you’re right – we’ve updated the article.
The time change is UTC -4 and not UTC -5 as mentioned here, please research and correct the information you are distributing.