Pilot tools
Zulu time converter
Convert Zulu (UTC) time to your local time, or local time to Zulu, for any date and time zone. It follows each zone's daylight saving, so the answer is right on the day you pick.
Zulu (UTC) now
--:--:--Z
Your local time
--:--:--
Today's date to start with
Four digits, such as 0300 or 1430
Your browser's zone to start with
Local time
14:00
Tue 27 Oct 2026, Australian Eastern Daylight Time
- Date
- 27 Oct
- Offset
- UTC+11
- As in a METAR
- 270300Z
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Flying with Stratos? The date and time on your landing report are in UTC, the same Zulu time your METARs and flight plans use.
For flight simulation only. Don't use it for real-world flight planning or navigation.
How it works
Zulu is the time in the UTC zone, at longitude 0°. UTC (Coordinated Universal Time) is the world's time standard and GMT is the older name for the same clock at Greenwich, so for flying the three are one time. The Z comes from the phonetic alphabet: Zulu is the letter Z, the military label for the UTC zone.
Aviation uses it so that a pilot in Sydney, a controller in Singapore and a forecaster in London all read the same time on a METAR, a TAF, a NOTAM or a flight plan, and nothing shifts for daylight saving. A time is written as HHMMZ: 1430Z is 2:30 pm UTC. Weather reports put the day of the month in front, so 270300Z is 0300 UTC on the 27th.
local time = Zulu time + the zone's UTC offset
The offset is not one number all year. A zone that uses daylight saving moves by an hour when its clocks change, so the same Zulu time is a different local time in summer and winter, and the date can change too. This page asks your browser's time zone data for the offset on the exact date you enter. Our hPa to inHg converter covers another number on every METAR.
Questions
What does Zulu time mean?
Zulu time is Coordinated Universal Time (UTC), the time at longitude 0°. "Zulu" is the word for the letter Z in the phonetic alphabet, and Z is the military label for that time zone. Pilots write it as four digits followed by Z: 1430Z is 2:30 pm UTC.
Is Zulu the same as UTC and GMT?
Zulu and UTC are the same time, and for flying GMT is too. GMT is the mean solar time at Greenwich and UTC is the modern atomic standard that replaced it as the world's reference, the two staying within a second of each other. The difference that matters: the United Kingdom keeps GMT only in winter and uses British Summer Time in summer, while UTC never changes.
Why do pilots use Zulu time?
So everyone uses the same time. A flight crosses many time zones, and weather reports, forecasts, flight plans, NOTAMs and ATC all need one clock that is the same for the pilot, the controller and the dispatcher, and that never moves for daylight saving. Zulu is that clock.
How do I convert Zulu to local time?
Add your zone's offset from UTC. Sydney in summer is UTC+11, so 0300Z is 1400 local. New York in winter is UTC-5, so 1400Z is 0900. The offset changes when daylight saving starts or ends, which is why this page works it out for the date you enter rather than using a fixed number.
What does 270300Z mean in a METAR?
The first two digits are the day of the month and the next four are the time in Zulu. 270300Z is the 27th at 0300 UTC. The month is not given: a METAR is always for the current month.
Does Zulu time change with daylight saving?
No. Zulu never changes. The local time in a zone changes when its clocks go forward or back, so the gap between Zulu and local time changes with it. Sydney is UTC+10 in winter and UTC+11 in summer, for example. Zulu didn't move.
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