An Emirates flight from Edinburgh to Dubai International Airport will be forced to make an unscheduled stopover in Manchester on Sunday night because of a jet fuel crisis that has impacted multiple flights at Edinburgh Airport (EDI) throughout the afternoon and evening.
Emirates flight EK-24, which is set to depart Edinburgh at 10:00 pm on May 31, will be in the air for less than an hour before it touches down in Manchester, so that additional fuel can be loaded on the Airbus A350-900 twinjet aircraft for its flight to Dubai.
And Emirates isn’t the only airline to have been affected, with multiple flights delayed on Sunday evening, and other airlines arranging for planes to make unscheduled stopovers to be refueled.
You might assume that the jet fuel crisis is connected with the situation in the Middle East, but sources claim this isn’t the case at all. In fact, the supply of jet fuel across Europe has been secured well into the summer, and flight cancellations as a result of the closure of the Strait of Hormuz are no longer anticipated.
But while Edinburgh Airport is believed to have plenty of jet fuel, the issue, sources say, is getting the fuel to the airplanes, because of a shortage of fuel truck drivers.
Passengers on board one British Airways flight to London were mid-way through boarding when they were ordered back into the terminal because no fuel had been delivered to the aircraft, and there was no indication of when a fuel truck might arrive.
In a statement, a spokesperson for British Airways said it hadn’t been impacted the jet fuel fiasco, although the airline’s own flight status tool paints a very different picture.
All but one of BA’s afternoon and evening flights from Edinburgh to London Heathrow have been delayed, with two departing more than three hours late, and two others taking off nearly an hour late.
Similar problems were reported by other airlines:
- A Ryanair flight to Belfast departed two hours late.
- A Norwegian flight to Copenhagen is delayed by more than six hours.
- Multiple EasyJets have been delayed by nearly an hour each.
It appears that flights operated by the Lufthansa Group have been the worst affected, with several flights by Lufthansa and Eurowings canceled as a result of the disruption.
At around 3:30 pm on Sunday, civil aviation authorities issued a so-called NOTAM (Notice to Airmen) for pilots flying to Edinburgh Airport, which reads:
LONGHAUL, SHORTHAUL AND DOMESTIC AIRLINES TO MAXIMISE INBOUND
TANKERING, DUE TO FUEL SUPPLY ISSUES RESULTING IN REDUCED CAPACITY
Tankering is a controversial tool available to airlines in which they carry more fuel on the outbound to a destination in order to avoid refuelling at the outstation airport for the return flight.
It’s controversial because the additional weight increases fuel burn and CO2 emissions, although in situations like this, the only alternative would be to cancel flights to Edinburgh.
Tankering works well for short-haul flights, but even a widebody aircraft like the A350-900 doesn’t have enough capacity in its fuel tanks to fly all the way from Dubai to Edinburgh and back without needing to refuel.
In any case, the outbound flight to Emirates would have departed Emirates way before the NOTAM was issued.
Edinburgh Airport has not yet provided a statement on the exact circumstances of the jet fuel supply issues or when it expects normal refueling to return.
