Lufthansa orders tankering into Frankfurt as jet fuel supplies tighten

Frankfurt Airport is short of jet fuel after months of reduced barge deliveries. Lufthansa has told its pilots to take on extra fuel at other airports so they can avoid or limit refuelling on arrival in Frankfurt.

The cause is the low water level of the Rhine. According to a report in the newspaper Bild, tanker vessels have for months been unable to reach the terminal on the Main, or have arrived only partly loaded. Pipeline capacity into the airport is also restricted, for reasons that have not been disclosed, which the report says has made the situation worse.

The airport's fuel stock sits in ten above-ground tanks with a combined capacity of 186 million litres, connected to aircraft stands by some 60 kilometres of underground piping. Aircraft take on roughly 15 million litres a day at Frankfurt. At that rate the reserve would last about twelve days if no new deliveries arrived.

Lufthansa, the largest carrier at the airport, confirmed the measure and said it had taken various precautions. Under the practice known in the industry as tankering, aircraft arrive carrying more fuel than the flight itself requires, cutting the amount that has to be uplifted in Frankfurt.

The instruction applies mainly to short-haul services, according to the report, though long-haul routes are increasingly affected. Lufthansa's aim is to prevent passengers or cargo from being left behind, which would cost the airline revenue.