Hawaii Time (HT)
Honolulu operates on Hawaii Time (HT). This time zone does not observe Daylight Saving Time.
Time Zone: Hawaii-Aleutian Standard Time (HST) — Standard Offset: UTC-10 (HST) — DST: Not observed
Country: United States
This city does not observe Daylight Saving Time. The UTC offset remains constant year-round, which simplifies international scheduling.
Hawaii does not observe Daylight Saving Time, keeping Honolulu on HST (UTC-10) year-round. During winter, Hawaii is 2 hours behind LA, 3 behind Denver, 4 behind Chicago, and 5 behind New York. During summer (when the mainland springs forward), those gaps widen by 1 hour each: 3 behind LA, 4 behind Denver, 5 behind Chicago, 6 behind New York. Hawaii's tropical latitude means day length barely varies across seasons, making DST unnecessary.
Honolulu sits roughly equidistant between the US mainland and Asia, making it a scheduling and logistical bridge for the Pacific. The time zone gap to Asia is actually more manageable than from the mainland — Tokyo is 19 hours ahead (the same as 5 hours behind HST), and Sydney is 20-21 hours ahead. This positioning has made Hawaii a natural stopover and meeting point for US-Asian business and military coordination.
Pearl Harbor-Hickam Joint Base and US Indo-Pacific Command (INDOPACOM) headquarters on Oahu make HST a critical time zone for US military operations across the Pacific. INDOPACOM's area of responsibility covers 36 nations and over half the world's population. Military operations coordinate across HST, Asian time zones, and mainland US time zones simultaneously.
Hawaii's tourism-driven economy means business hours may differ from the mainland. Many tourism and hospitality businesses operate 7 days a week. Mainland businesses should be aware that a 9 AM ET call reaches Honolulu at 4 AM HST (3 AM during mainland DST) — essentially impossible. The practical overlap for Hawaii-East Coast business is roughly 12 PM to 5 PM HST / 5 PM to 10 PM ET, which is tight.