The jet fuel shortage at OR Tambo International Airport (Ortia) that disrupted flights and resulted in the cancellation of several flights has now been stabilised.
That’s according to a statement from Minister of Transport Fikile Mbalula who said on Wednesday that the matter had been resolved after his engagements with the Minister of Mineral Resources and Energy and Airports Company South Africa (Acsa).
“These entities, including the Department of Transport, were mandated to put measures in place to address the jet fuel shortage matter,” he said.
Earlier this week Freight News, quoting an article that appeared in Fin24, reported that the average available fuel stock at OR Tambo was about three days’ worth of demand as opposed to a better average of about seven days.
The reason for the dearth was attributed to the floods in Durban.
“Jet fuel is not refined in South Africa any more and must be imported. But, as recent floods battered KwaZulu-Natal, a backlog was created in the supply chain of imported jet fuel via the Durban port to OR Tambo,” an industry insider told Fin24.
But, he added, the floods had only made an already “sporadically concerning situation” at OR Tambo worse.
