AKL Airport Faces Contaminated Fuel Crisis

[kangarooflyer88]

Spotted this on Bloomberg news earlier today:

Airlines servicing New Zealand face jet fuel rationing in coming weeks after a shipment failed quality control testing.

The Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment was informed of a potential impact to supply at Auckland Airport after testing of a particular shipment raised concerns, said Paul Stocks, a deputy secretary at the ministry. Fuel companies have advised that they expect new fuel to be available from Dec. 18, he said.

So far a number of airlines have had to make major changes to their operations out of AKL. Some airlines are flying passengers and cargo into AKL then flying back empty on a full tank, just in case. Others have opted to make stopovers at HNL en-route to North America. Obviously not the most ideal time for this type of fuel issue to occur during what will arguably be one of the busiest travel seasons in NZ after years of closure due to you know what.

Last week I flew out of CHC which I'm guessing has no impact on this since they use different fuel? Or alternatively QF has enough fuel to fly back and forth between ditch on a 737.

-RooFlyer88

 

[Melburnian1]

Spotted this on Bloomberg news earlier today:



So far a number of airlines have had to make major changes to their operations out of AKL. Some airlines are flying passengers and cargo into AKL then flying back empty on a full tank, just in case. Others have opted to make stopovers at HNL en-route to North America. Obviously not the most ideal time for this type of fuel issue to occur during what will arguably be one of the busiest travel seasons in NZ after years of closure due to you know what.

Last week I flew out of CHC which I'm guessing has no impact on this since they use different fuel? Or alternatively QF has enough fuel to fly back and forth between ditch on a 737.

-RooFlyer88

Interesting, because the previous report to which I referred under the Air NZ 'Delays/Cancellations' thread stated that replacement aviation turbine fuel would arrive on 12 December 2022, i.e. yesterday, although it wasn't clear the date this meant it'd be available for aircraft.

So we now know that (give or take a day) the arrival of a shipping tanker means that fuel should be in the pipeline to the airport by six days later.

Since closure of Marsden Point, NZ has been without a refinery. Given Australia has so few left - Lytton (Brisbane), Corio (Geelong) and Alrona (Melbourne), perhaps there's a lesson for Oz?

 

[kangarooflyer88]

Interesting, because the previous report to which I referred under the Air NZ 'Delays/Cancellations' thread stated that replacement aviation turbine fuel would arrive on 12 December 2022, i.e. yesterday, although it wasn't clear the date this meant it'd be available for aircraft.

So we now know that (give or take a day) the arrival of a shipping tanker means that fuel should be in the pipeline to the airport by six days later.

Since closure of Marsden Point, NZ has been without a refinery. Given Australia has so few left - Lytton (Brisbane), Corio (Geelong) and Alrona (Melbourne), perhaps there's a lesson for Oz?

Unless AustralIa and New Zealand things cars and planes run on dreams, yeah they should definitely have refinery capacity, notwithstanding what Greta may say. Keep in mind too both nations are in a perilous position when it comes to energy - coal will only get you so far and sun shining down on the outback won’t help a 777 filled with passengers crossing the Pacific

 

[TomVexille]

AA have been carrying management pilots to ferry their DFW-AKL-DFW 787 down to CHC to refuel