American Airlines warns of fuel shortages across the country

Well, I contacted CID and there are no fuel shortages or fuel delivery problems there.

Pilot's generally look at the proposed flight plan(s) and they determine the amount of fuel to be carried on board.
 
Well, I contacted CID and there are no fuel shortages or fuel delivery problems there.

Pilot's generally look at the proposed flight plan(s) and they determine the amount of fuel to be carried on board.
I thought Cedar Rapids, IA and its airport, although west of the Mississippi River, are classified as a far western suburb of Chicago :eek:
 
Some large airports get jet fuel piped in and stored on site.

Depends on where. SFO is really odd as they have a designed fuel depot that right there next to San Francisco Bay, but I don't see any way they receive fuel by water.

I've heard various claims as to why there are spot shortages at specific airports. The primary claim is that there are driver shortages where fuel can only be transported by truck. Another is that there's high demand for jet fuel because of firefighting aircraft being deployed. It's gotten to the point where they might make a short refueling stop at another airport or where they're instructed to load more fuel than they normally would if the destination airport has a fuel shortage. This has been happening a lot in Fresno.


If there is a jet fuel shortage, there may not be any easy answers short of bringing in more from elsewhere. Making fuels is a delicate dance of making enough of this and that to meet demand for five different things, and where storing it too long results in degradation. Refineries obviously don't want to boost production of everything just to meet high jet fuel demand.
 
There have been spot shortages at individual airports over the past few months. A power failure for a few hours, a shortage of fuel truck drivers, and pipeline delivery problems have all been offered as explanation.

In some cases we “tanker“ fuel on the inbound flight. This requires that the subsequent flight be short enough, and the airplane capable enough that it can land with all the fuel it needs for the next leg.

The 757-200, for example, has no problem doing this on domestic flights.

I’ve landed in Eagle, CO (where fuel is a problem on a good day) with 32,000#. Enough to fly all the way back to EWR.
 
I was traveling a lot before Covid and I’m no longest traveling.

Hopefully air travel picks up soon.
 
There have been spot shortages at individual airports over the past few months. A power failure for a few hours, a shortage of fuel truck drivers, and pipeline delivery problems have all been offered as explanation.

Some claims are that there's a regional supply shortage relative to demand. I don't necessarily buy that answer.
 
The USA economy relies very heavily on fuel being available at all times in a macro basis.

The question... is there systemic risk to the USA for readily available fuel. If there is.... Houston we have a problem.

My two cents.... bring back on-line shuttered USA nuclear plants, provide huge incentives to build new refineries, and incentivize domestic oil production in a big way.

Take away readily available oil to the USA........ huge risk to the functioning of the USA economy. Wonder if China is having like issues.... I suspect not.
 
Depending on the composition of the crude oil, kerosene ( jet fuel ) is only a small component of the bbl. If gasoline production is down due to low demand, it effects the production of jet fuel. Typically less than 10% of the bbl of crude can be turned into jet fuel.
 
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The USA economy relies very heavily on fuel being available at all times in a macro basis.

The question... is there systemic risk to the USA for readily available fuel. If there is.... Houston we have a problem.

My two cents.... bring back on-line shuttered USA nuclear plants, provide huge incentives to build new refineries, and incentivize domestic oil production in a big way.

Take away readily available oil to the USA........ huge risk to the functioning of the USA economy. Wonder if China is having like issues.... I suspect not.


All good suggestions but the issue seems to be distribution at certain airports.
 
All good suggestions but the issue seems to be distribution at certain airports.

It's a far more complex issue than just distribution. Some claim that it's a real supply shortage.

As someone else noted, the stuff used to make jet fuel is maybe 10% of the output. That's not something that's easily changed, although I suppose that there are some chemical processes (hydro treating) these days that can modify it. If there's far more demand for one type of fuel than the other, then that runs into issues of where to store the fuel with too much supply. That costs money and the fuel degrades during storage. So it's not as simple as just making more jet fuel, because it would also require making more gasoline, diesel fuel, heating oil, bunker fuel, etc.

I guess one thing that might help with all this is the use of SAF like biofuels. They're more expensive but have some benefits including lower emissions and even range improvement. I've said it before - there's nothing all that mysterious about turning biological materials into fuels. The big barrier is going to be how much it costs relative to petroleum. Some of this may eventually be mandated.
 
It's a far more complex issue than just distribution. Some claim that it's a real supply shortage.

As someone else noted, the stuff used to make jet fuel is maybe 10% of the output. That's not something that's easily changed, although I suppose that there are some chemical processes (hydro treating) these days that can modify it. If there's far more demand for one type of fuel than the other, then that runs into issues of where to store the fuel with too much supply. That costs money and the fuel degrades during storage. So it's not as simple as just making more jet fuel, because it would also require making more gasoline, diesel fuel, heating oil, bunker fuel, etc.

I guess one thing that might help with all this is the use of SAF like biofuels. They're more expensive but have some benefits including lower emissions and even range improvement. I've said it before - there's nothing all that mysterious about turning biological materials into fuels. The big barrier is going to be how much it costs relative to petroleum. Some of this may eventually be mandated.

The headline seems to be exaggerating things a bit which is typical these days. From what I read this problem mainly affects smaller airports like Boise, Reno, and the like. From that I gleaned that these airports might not have direct pipelines like the major ones but depend on trucks to deliver the fuel.

A lot of industry sectors are desperate for workers but nobody is taking the jobs.
 
The headline seems to be exaggerating things a bit which is typical these days. From what I read this problem mainly affects smaller airports like Boise, Reno, and the like. From that I gleaned that these airports might not have direct pipelines like the major ones but depend on trucks to deliver the fuel.

A lot of industry sectors are desperate for workers but nobody is taking the jobs.

some of the claims are of high demand where there’s a lot of demand for firefighting.

 
some of the claims are of high demand where there’s a lot of demand for firefighting.

Wonder if Defense Support of Civil authorities (DSCA) is a option? The National Guard and Reserve have plenty of tanker drivers and the support network to sustain them.

I have never seen a job go unfilled (except in Alaska) when the pay is good. Maybe the day of $15 an hour truck drivers, or drivers paid by the mile is over. When I was a teenager working on a loading dock, all the drivers were Union and made great money, I suspect they made more in the early 1980s than many drivers make today. And drivers back then never touched the freight.

 
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