The Airports Company South Africa (ACSA) has confirmed that its working on securing enough jet fuel for February to mitigate any flight disruptions at the OR Tambo International Airport (ORTIA). ACSA said it was able to ensure continued fuel supply for January, following a fire at the National Petroleum Refiners of South Africa (NATREF) earlier this year.

"ORTIA has 27.1 million litres of jet fuel currently available. The airport currently utilises about 3.6 million litres of jet fuel a day which means that there are about 7.6 days of stock on hand until the week ending February 2," ACSA said.

In a statement, the airports company explained that the fuel requirement per day is 3.6m litres and with the refinery opening on February 27, this translates to 97.2 million litres required for February.

Solutions

It said the Fuels Industry Association of Southern Africa (FIASA), NATREF industry partners and government agencies, including ACSA are working with the Central Energy Fund, Strategic Fuel Fund, Department of Mineral and Petroleum Resources, Transnet Pipelines, Transnet Freight Rail and other state-owned energy companies to find jet fuel for February.

ACSA has put in contingency plans such as refueling at other airports also called tankering, to manage fuel needs.

"We are engaging all stakeholders to deal with the shortage caused by the NATREF fire and build fuel reserves; we have requested Transnet to prioritise the movement of fuel stock from Durban to Gauteng once imported volumes arrive and with the fuel industry, we are working to build up more stocks at King Shaka International Airport which has higher fuel capacity than its daily consumption," ACSA said.

It has further encouraged fuel suppliers to build fuel reserves.

Connecting flights

ACSA said for smooth connection between flights, passengers need to allocate enough time between the arrival and departure of the next flight.

"Every airline sets minimum connection times at each airport. Domestic flights usually take an hour to connect to another flight. International flights take longer due to immigration, customs requirements. Larger airports will require a longer time than small airports," ACSA said.

seanne.rall@iol.co.za

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