Airlines Association warns of possible jet fuel shortage beyond May
The spokesperson says airlines typically secure their fuel stocks up to six months in advance
Black News 
The Airlines Association of Southern Africa is warning of potential jet fuel supply constraints beyond next month. The association says the ongoing conflict in the Middle East has created uncertainty around future jet fuel supply.
The price in the Southern African region has increased from R8.50 per liter in February to more than R30 by mid-April. As a result, airlines have introduced a temporary fuel surcharge which is an additional fee applied to new bookings to help offset the sharp increase in jet fuel prices.
Association spokesperson Linden Birns says they don’t want to find themselves with no fuel as a surprise.
“We know there’s sufficient fuel at the moment to see us through May. Some of the suppliers are talking about June, but we don’t have clarity beyond that and the whole point is, how do you plan as an airline? How do you plan your schedule? How do you maintain your operations in a vacuum without that sort of knowledge?”
Birns says airlines typically secure their fuel stocks up to six months in advance, while major airports like O.R Tambo maintain about five days of reserves.
He says meetings with fuel suppliers and airline bodies are scheduled for this week and passengers should prepare for sustained higher ticket prices and possible route consolidation.
The association has also called for greater efficiency across the sector to help conserve jet fuel.
“You don’t have bottlenecks, you don’t have congestion, that aircraft can depart on time. Similarly, you want to make sure that your airspace is being properly managed so you don’t have aircraft that are being stuck on the ground waiting to take off with their engines idling burning fuel. And similarly, you don’t want them being held up before they can approach and land and being put into holding patterns, flying circles in the sky for several minutes before they’re cleared to land, because that’s also wasting fuel and burning cash.”
Birns says the cost of burning jet fuel translates to R2000 a minute for a typical 180-seater aircraft.
