A shortage of fuel is currently disrupting flights departing from Johannesburg’s OR Tambo International Airport.
United Airlines' route between Johannesburg and New York (Newark Liberty International) was first to report the fuel shortage.
Malawi Airlines has also reported its operations to the airport have been disrupted.
The airline reported to Malawi 24 the payload for its Johannesburg flight was affected due to the return fuel uplift.
Consequently, the passenger, baggage and cargo load uplift has been restricted to 70% of the aircraft's normal capacity.
Turkish Airlines too is currently flying via Durban in order to uplift fuel.
United has now been forced to cancel several flights in both directions.
The airline is understandably reluctant to fly to Johannesburg knowing that it may not be able to fuel up for the return leg, and having its aircraft and crew on the ground for an unpredictable length of time.
Fin24 has reported that the reason for the dearth of fuel at the airport is the floods in Durban.
“Jet fuel is not refined in South Africa anymore 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 only made an already “sporadically concerning situation” at OR Tambo worse.
Fin24 understands the current average available fuel stock at OR Tambo is about three days’ worth of demand as opposed to a better average of about seven days, and this week will be crucial in terms of ensuring increased levels,” reported the publication, see here.
Jet fuel supply at the airport is managed by a third-party supplier and it is governed by a service-level agreement that requires that at all times there must be volume in storage equivalent to the average daily consumption. Acsa would not comment to Travel News on the current fuel crisis at the airport and promised a press statement yesterday, but nothing had been received at the time of going to press.
Ten days ago, on April 15, the South African Petroleum Industry Association (Sapia) said there were adequate petroleum products available in the country following the recent floods in KwaZulu-Natal. Sapia said at the time that while there had been an impact on operations across the supply chain, there was no immediate risk to the availability of fuel. Sapia promised a press statement yesterday, but this hadn't been received at the time of publishing.
Source: Travel News/Kate Nathan.
