ACSA says fuel shortage has eased at Cape Town International

Media reports suggest that the jet fuel supply crunch at Cape Town International Airport has seen some improvement over the past 24 hours.

This comes after talks that continued late into Friday night between fuel suppliers and airlines, Airports Company South Africa said on Saturday.

A major fuel supplier has also since advised that production of Jet A1 has improved over the past 24 hours, and the additional product has been prioritised via imports and road tanker to supplement local production.

News24 Business has it that the impact on flights was currently likely to be minimal, ACSA said, but advised travellers to keep a close eye on flight schedules.  

On Friday, it was reported that the largest supplier of jet fuel had been unable to meet demand as a result of technical issues caused by load shedding and ACSA sent a notice in this regard to airmen on Friday afternoon.

On Saturday, ACSA said airlines had been asked to talk to suppliers and make contingency plans in light of the shortage.

“Airports Company South Africa can confirm that discussions were held with fuel suppliers and airlines until late last night (Friday, 3 March 2023), when airlines were given their allocation of JET for the next few days,” it said.

“Given the reduction in supply, a Notice to Airmen (NOTAM) was published at 5 am this morning to request airlines to engage their suppliers and to limit uplift where required. Our fuel suppliers are closely engaging impacted airlines to reduce operational impact.”

ACSA said the situation was being monitored closely, especially the delivery rates of the JET A1 fuel to the airport.