The national Transport Department has secured a 121-million liter jet fuel supply to alleviate the critical shortage at OR Tambo International Airport following a fire at the Natref refinery. This move aims to prevent further disruptions and stranding of passengers caused by fuel unavailability.
The national Transport Department has announced that the fuel industry has secured 121 million liters of jet fuel for OR Tambo International Airport. This follows last week’s urgent meeting between Transport Minister Barbara Creecy, Airports Company of South Africa (ACSA), the Fuel Industry Association of South Africa, and SASOL to find a solution to the crisis caused by a fire at the Natref refinery earlier in January.
Several aircraft were unable to refuel, leaving passengers stranded and forcing airlines to make alternative arrangements to secure fuel at Windhoek in Namibia, King Shaka Airport in Durban and other destinations, causing inconvenience to passengers and crew.The fuel will be imported through the port of Durban via three vessels, expected to arrive in February. A spokesperson for the Transport Department, Collen Msibi, said that the meeting agreed that all parties will work on a logistics plan to ensure the imported fuel supply moves from the Port of Durban to OR Tambo in time for airline needs. An update on these logistics plans will be presented to the Minister on Friday 31 January 2025.Parties agreed it is necessary to build a fuel reserve to serve as a critical safety buffer for unforeseen circumstances such as delays, diversions, or unexpected changes in flight conditions. In this regard ACSA will engage the Department of Mineral and Petroleum Resources and its entities. Creecy has expressed her appreciation to passengers, businesses and stakeholders for their patience during this period of unforeseen difficulty and apologised for the inconvenience caused. Passengers at OR Tambo International Airport were left stranded when airlines were unable to refuel aircraft as normal. The refuelling issues at ORTIA then led to passengers at other airports across the country being unable to catch their flights. The reason for this was that planes were stuck in Johannesburg
JET FUEL SOUTH AFRICA OR TAMBO INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT FUEL SHORTAGE NATREF REFINERY
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