Major Airports in Reunion
- Roland Garros Airport (RUN) - 03:20:46
- Saint-Pierre Pierrefonds Airport (ZSE) - 03:20:46
Daylight saving time in Reunion
Reunion has 1 listed IANA time zones. None of them observe daylight saving time in 2026. The UTC offset remains stable throughout the year.
Best Time to Call Reunion
Business hours in Reunion (9 AM–5 PM local time) fall at these local times elsewhere:
- Beijing: 1:00 PM – 9:00 PM ( Partial overlap)
- Paris: 7:00 AM – 3:00 PM ( Partial overlap)
- Toronto: 1:00 AM – 9:00 AM ( Outside normal hours)
- Seoul: 2:00 PM – 10:00 PM ( Partial overlap)
- Mexico City: 11:00 PM (previous day) – 7:00 AM ( Outside normal hours)
- Cairo: 8:00 AM – 4:00 PM ( Convenient)
- Bangkok: 12:00 PM – 8:00 PM ( Partial overlap)
Times shown reflect current UTC offsets and may shift by up to an hour around daylight saving transitions.
Time Difference from Reunion
Compare time in Reunion with other countries.
Countries in the Same Time Zone as Reunion
Most Popular Cities in Reunion
Holidays in Reunion
Official national public holidays. Regional and religious observances may vary by area.
About Time in Reunion
Saint-Denis Gained 18 Minutes 8 Seconds When Réunion Adopted Standard Time
The historical clock record for Réunion contains one transition that matters far more than a generic description of UTC+4. IANA tzdb reconstructs Saint-Denis on local mean time at UTC+3:41:52 before standardization and places the change to UTC+4 in June 1911. The arithmetic is exact: the new standard was 18 minutes 8 seconds ahead of the reconstructed Saint-Denis local mean time.
The second-level precision needs a qualification. UTC+3:41:52 is a historical reconstruction for Saint-Denis, not evidence that every clock across Réunion was synchronized to that value to the second. IANA itself warns that pre-1970 material can be incomplete, and local mean time was tied to longitude rather than to a single island-wide clock system.
The broader event is independently supported by the French military historical archive. Its records for 1911-1913 include a dedicated file on determining legal time in French territories, explicitly naming Réunion among the colonies under review. That documentary trail supports the standardization period even though the exact June transition encoded in tzdb should still be described as the database reconstruction rather than as a quotation from a surviving Réunion decree.
Réunion's UTC+4 Clock Became Part of France's National Legal-Time System
Réunion is not merely associated with UTC+4 by convention. French law now defines the island's legal time directly. Decree No. 2017-292 of March 6, 2017 establishes French legal time by reference to Coordinated Universal Time as maintained within the French metrology system and assigns a separate offset to each relevant part of the Republic.
Article 3 states specifically that legal time in La Réunion is obtained by adding four hours to the French base legal time derived from UTC. The same decree names the Observatoire de Paris as the institution responsible for establishing the local realization of UTC used as that base reference.
This formulation replaced older French legal-time decrees from 1978 and 1979. The 2017 text therefore does more than restate an everyday clock setting: it places Réunion's UTC+4 within the current statutory architecture of French legal time.
Metropolitan France Changes Its Clock; Réunion Does Not
The same 2017 decree draws a sharp legal distinction between metropolitan France and Réunion. Article 2 assigns metropolitan departments UTC+1 in standard time and UTC+2 during the annual summer-time period. Article 3 gives Réunion UTC+4 without any seasonal adjustment.
As a result, the time difference between Réunion and metropolitan France changes even though clocks on Réunion itself do not move. When metropolitan France is on standard time, Réunion is three hours ahead. During metropolitan summer time, the gap contracts to two hours.
The difference comes entirely from the metropolitan clock change. Réunion remains on the same legal offset throughout the year. That arrangement is also consistent with the island's geographical position near 55° east longitude: UTC+4 is centered on the 60°E standard meridian, much closer to Réunion than the seasonal Central European offsets used in metropolitan France.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many time zones does Reunion have?
One. The whole of Reunion follows Indian/Reunion, so every city shows the same local time as the capital, Saint-Denis.
Is Reunion ahead of or behind GMT?
Reunion is currently 4 hours ahead of GMT (UTC+4).
Does Reunion use summer time?
No. Reunion does not observe daylight saving time, so its clocks stay at UTC+4 all year. Its time difference with countries that do change their clocks still shifts by an hour in spring and autumn.
How many public holidays does Reunion have in 2026?
Reunion has 12 national public holidays in 2026, when banks and government offices are usually closed. Some regions may also have their own local holidays.
How do I dial a phone number in Reunion from abroad?
From a mobile phone, type +262 and then the local number without the leading 0 used for domestic calls, if it has one. From a landline, replace the plus sign with your exit code: 011 from the US and Canada, or 00 from most of Europe, for example 00 262 followed by the number.
What language is spoken in Reunion?
The main language of Reunion is French.
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