World Geography, Destinations and Travel Time Calculation
Geography you must be able to use
Candidates should know the three IATA Traffic Conference Areas - TC1 (the Americas), TC2 (Europe, Africa, Middle East) and TC3 (Asia, Australasia) - plus the sub-areas used in fare construction. Be comfortable with hemispheres, the Equator and Prime Meridian, latitude and longitude, continents and major regions, and the location of key hubs and destinations. Know which countries sit in which area: Egypt and Russia are common traps because of their geographic spread.
Time zones and the date line
The world is divided into time zones measured as offsets from UTC/GMT; a few countries use half- or quarter-hour offsets (India UTC+5:30, Nepal +5:45). Daylight saving shifts clocks by an hour in many countries. The International Date Line roughly follows 180° longitude: crossing it westbound (Asia to the Americas) means going back a day; eastbound means moving forward a day.
Calculating elapsed time
Rule of thumb: convert both local times to UTC, subtract, then convert back. Worked example: a flight departs 09:00 at UTC+2 and lands 6 hours later at a destination on UTC−3. Departure in UTC = 07:00; arrival in UTC = 13:00; local arrival = 10:00. The clock appears to move forward only one hour, but six hours have elapsed.
Traps
Mixing local and UTC, forgetting daylight saving, and assuming the time printed on a ticket is UTC are the classic errors. Always establish which zone each stated time uses before doing arithmetic.