The State Government’s favoured position on South Australia’s time zone is to shift half an hour forward to align with Eastern Standard Time.

However, it says it still has some thorny details to sort out.

Those complications include potential affects on airlines due to Adelaide Airport’s curfew, and the impact on the far west coast community – which may even get its own “unofficial” local time zone.

The Government today released two reports from its community consultation on the future of South Australia’s time zone, with Premier Jay Weatherill saying the process had skewered some myths, while also raising new issues.

He said that after considering the reports the Government favoured a shift to EST, “however more work needed to be done”.

Weatherill did reveal, though, that the majority of responses to the Government’s consultation process opposed a time zone change.

“Minister of Investment and Trade Martin Hamilton-Smith is going to undertake two more pieces of work before we are in a position to make a proper judgement,” Weatherill said.

“We need to look more closely at the potential effects a shift to EST would have on the operations of Adelaide Airport and airlines.

“We also need to consider any potential measures we should consider which could minimise the impact of any change to the west coast community, including the option of a local, unofficial time.”

Hamilton-Smith said one airline had told the Government that a late-departing flight could be hit with an estimated loss of “load factor” of 20 per cent.

InDaily understands the central issue is the Adelaide Airport curfew which operates from 11pm to 6am. Shifting the time zone forward by half an hour could affect the current schedules.

“Other airlines said their services would benefit from the changes,” Hamilton-Smith said. “We are working to resolve these issues before proceeding with any change.”

Adelaide Airport’s curfew could cause some issues for flights, should our time zone be changed. AFP image

He said the “depth of feelings” in west coast communities had dominated submissions to the Government’s consultation website, however these submissions had also raised the option of a local time zone.

“For the remaining 95 per cent of the population that might be considering a shift to Eastern Standard Time, a few new issues have also cropped up.

“It is my intention to drill down further into these specific issues before coming back to Cabinet and the Parliament.”

The two reports released today including a summary of community consultation, and an economic study by the South Australian Centre for Economic Studies (SACES).

The Government says the “What We Heard” report identified “significant advantages” of shifting to EST, including boosting business opportunities, eliminating computer systems problems, greater convenience for tourists, and removing delay in broadcasts of news and entertainment.

The SACES report estimated there would be a $2.5 billion net economic benefit to the state by shifting to EST.