Interordinate Aviation Time

Interordinate Aviation Time (Savamese: Temps aéronautique interordinal, Hártal: Alríkilegur Flugtími, Rashimic: XXX) is a method of time-keeping developed by commercial aviation agencies across Outer Joriscia and Messenia, originally as an aid to air traffic control. Although not officially sanctioned by any government, it has emerged as a de facto standard for use in long-haul air travel and, to a lesser extent, for commerce.

Origins

The measurement of time across Messenia and Joriscia has historically been fragmented, as most nations – and the more economically dominant ones in particular – have been loth to accept the “subjugation” represented by the use of a time standard not based on their domestic needs. As commercial air travel became viable in the 1920s and 1930s, problems caused by this fragmentation were mostly confined to short-haul flights where the question of time differences was relatively small, and were usually answered by simple workarounds based on local times agreed by the countries of “origin” and “destination”. While some attempts were made during the early 1930s to introduce some form of generally-accepted standard, the upheavals of the Long War and the resultant breakdown in channels of interordinate diplomacy caused that process to be shelved. It would not be until the formation of the Interordinate Organisation for Air Transport (IOAT) in 1970 that this effort was resumed.

With air travel between Messenia and Joriscia becoming a functional – if still somewhat limited – reality, the question of a global standard came back to the table. Discussions on the subject at the IOAT conference in 1972, in Gattam in Matal, initially stalled as blocs coalesced around regional standards. The countries of Joriscia had already established a religiously mandated standard time in 1887. The Messenian nations, distributed more generally east to west, found it more difficult to reach a compromise, but ultimately settled on the meridian of Quesailles as their preferred choice. Local midday between the two positions, at almost exactly three hours apart, made for an easier conversion and made the decision somewhat more palatable.

However, it proved impossible for the delegates to settle on a single, universally recognised standard, with even a compromise based on a zero meridian across the sparsely populated grasslands in the centre of the Messeno-Joriscian continent proving unacceptable. Pending a more definitive resolution to the issue, the conference provisionally adopted a dual system using two meridians: Messenian Aviation Time (IAT–M) is based on the Quesailles standard; Joriscian Aviation Time (IAT–J) is based on the Prysostaic meridian, 45 degrees, and three hours as the sun travels, to the east of Quesailles. The two standards are distinguished in written form as, in the example of local midday in Quesailles, 1200M and 1500J respectively.

For broadly similar reasons, no unanimous agreement could be reached as to a “global language of the air”, resulting in Rashimic being adopted as the standard in Outer Joriscia and Messenia being divided between a southern zone using Hártal and a northern zone using Savamese.

Present day

While the dual system is viewed in some quarters as an awkward and unwieldy compromise, and potentially a source of confusion which could put lives at hazard, it has settled down to broad acceptance within the aviation industry, belying its supposed “provisional” status. With transcontinental traffic still some way from becoming commonplace – certainly for passenger traffic, arguably less so for freight shipping – most flights are confined to regions where one or other standard is used throughout the journey. The language arrangements for air control have also remained the same, although in Messenia the boundaries of the Hártal and Savamese zones have shifted to a degree as Odann and some neighbouring countries originally in the Savamese zone have shifted to the Hártal one in the 1990s for political reasons. The IOAT also introduced new control zones in Ascesia and Lestria using Rashimic, Hártal, Savamese, or XX.

It should be pointed out that the use of IAT in either of its extant forms usually does not have governmental support. Resistance in Messenia has been particularly strong in this respect, with a number of governments in the region holding firmly to standard timing based on local solar time.