Airport officials at Austin, Texas, have warned of jet fuel shortage as travelers count surge from and to the state capital city.
The impending jet-fuel shortage issue
The Austin- Bergstrom International airport issued an alert on fuel shortage on Monday. They urged airlines to carry extra jet fuel and store more supplies in tankers as per their spokesperson Sam Haynes.
According to Haynes, the Austin airport has two fuel storage tanks that opened in 1999, but since then, the airport has not been augmented or expanded. This has resulted in the Airport facility holding a maximum of one or two days of fuel supplies which is much lower than the five to seven days supplies of jet fuels stockpiled by most other airports of similar size.
According to Spokesman Dan Landson, Southwest Airlines Inc. is aware of the fuel demand issues at the Austin-Bergstrom Airport, and they are working to mitigate the potential operational problem. The largest carrier by the load at the Austin airport, Southwest Airlines, has been asked tankering with fuel in their inbound flights. She said that no flight had been diverted or canceled due to a fuel shortage.
As per Bloomberg News, the Austin-Bergstrom International airport witnessed more than 8000 passengers before 8 a.m. on Sunday and Monday, which was about 25% above the regular traffic as per Haynes.
Haynes said that the jet fuel supply in hand is insufficient to keep up with the demand. The demand is the result of tremendous growth seen in the Austin area.
As per the Austin-American statesman newspaper reports, the passenger crush was so intense that security check-in lines stretched outside the airport and onto the sidewalks. The long wait led to many passengers missing their flights. As per Haynes, the Air France – KLM inaugural nonstop flight to Amsterdam, which is scheduled for Monday afternoon, was not affected by the squeeze in fuel supply.
A spokesman of the American Airlines Group Inc. said no flight schedules were affected by the fuel shortage. According to the Federal data, the Austin airport is ranked 29th in the U.S base on the 2021 passenger traffic.
