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Austin airport issues 2nd low fuel alert this year on Monday as air travel soars

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On Monday, KAUS issued its second fuel shortage alert this year due to heightened travel volumes linked to the 2022 South by Southwest Conference, NASCAR and PGA tour events. As part of the fuel alert, airlines were asked to fly into AUS with more fuel than typical, in an effort to make sure flights had enough for takeoff. (www.kxan.com) Más...

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mbrews
mbrews 4
The low fuel alert, issued Monday March 28, has been cancelled Wednesday March 30.

From the coverage at KEN5.com and other Austin sources -

"AUS operates with a 2 to 3 day supply of fuel because of current capacity restrictions. Other airports of similar size operate with five- to seven- days’ worth of fuel, airport leaders have said.

The airport is growing and rebounding from the pandemic faster than leaders expected. It’s preparing to serve a record-breaking 20 million passengers in 2022. When the airport opened in 1999, infrastructure was built for approximately 11 million passengers."

A project is planned to add an expanded fuel farm, however that project is delayed by maneuvers led by one specific Austin council member.
mbrews
mbrews 4
KAUS is suffering from success. As to tankering in extra fuel - Don't expect that for long haul flights arriving Austin.

Specifically, don't expect tankering by British BA 191, an A350 journeying 5000 miles to KAUS from London Heathrow.

Austin's fuel shortages might lead to insufficient re-fuelling for Delta and Alaska Air's flights to Austin from Pacific NW, or even round-trips from Boston.
watkinssusan
having done weight and balances both the "old " way, and the computerized version,unless things have drastically changed,fuel for passenger aircraft is allocated by size of the aircraft, what fuel might already be in the fuel tanks,mileage to the next destination where refueling would be available,the captains requested amount due to weather condition enroute,the number of passengers booked/boarded (as each persons weight is a calculated number included by approximation),the number of bags put onboard,the number of carry on bags,the amount of cargo (if any) boarded,and a few other things..the one thing i really remember is being told overfueling can sometimes be an issue as if that spills onto the tarmac,"defueling" the excess and cleaning up the spill takes a lot of time..if fuel shortages are an issue,all the airlines can do is limit the number of passengers booked on a flight (i have seen that done before on regional jets)cancel a few flights to destinations where there are many or some long haul,or pre-cancel (i have seen that done as well) flights that have lower bookings..having a "full" or even extra fuel is not just a one sided "go to the pumps and get it" issue...
xtoler
Larry Toler 1
Agree. When we flew the EMB145 ER's we had to limit our loads depending on conditions and distance. We couldn't always fill all 50 seats due to weight limitations.

RECOR10
RECOR10 -7
One can not forget, fuel at airports (even seemingly odd ones) is part of the strategic national defense. But, this is Bidens America.
yatesd
yatesd 1
Joe Biden doesn’t have a damn thing to do with the Austin airport running out of fuel, unless you want to also give him credit for the success of SXSW, a NASCAR race, et al. Seriously, you conspiracy nuts should find some other topic to dwell upon.
RECOR10
RECOR10 -1
He 100% does with the supply chain. There is no conspiracy about that. While this is not a political site (by intent) - the cost of air travel and those of us with our own aircraft are certainly affected by politics. Using our 'strategic oil supply' has direct effects on the cost per hour of flight time...but, I suppose we are that "evil 1%" and we only employ a few thousand some off folks (in total).

So, yes....Biden's fault...as for "fuel numbers based on expected PX load" (in the very wise comment by mary susan)...we also have to take strategic placement of fuel into the equation...and Austin is in that equation.
yatesd
yatesd 6
The problem is days of supply on the site, not overall supply. Read it.
phowry
Phil Howry 3
Bottom line, it really doesn't matter if KAUS has the airline operation's required fuel storage capacity; if the fuel resource is not being extracted from the earth, processed and delivered to the airport storage, this discussion is a waste of time. Aviation fuel tanker trucks can deliver fuel at increased demand cycle rotations if scheduled and if they have fuel to deliver.
darjr26
darjr26 0
Are you aware of any airport that is actually out of fuel. Have you seen a sign at any gas station saying they are closed due to lack of fuel? I didn’t think so. Auto fuel has dropped about 40 cents per gallon in the DFW area in the past two weeks. Think the oil was discovered, extracted, refined and delivered to the stations in two weeks? Oil companies are using the crisis in Ukraine and Covid recovery as an excuse to raise prices. They make more money while at the same time trying to convince people that politicians and environmentalists are causing the high prices. Sadly some people actually believe them.
phowry
Phil Howry 3
Since you seem to be an oil industry "insider", but you failed to mention the depletion of the government's "strategic oil reserves" as the factor behind the "talking point" gas price reductions. Have you kept track of the oil industry's stock prices? In a free market economy you have a supply and demand price structuring that assures reliable access of goods and services at "market-driven rates". How do you explain gasoline prices 4 years ago compared to now? I believe facts and reality, not slanderous "talking points".
darjr26
darjr26 2
Russia and Saudi Arabia dominate and control most of the world’s oil supply. They are not big believers in a market driven economy. We need to be energy independent, not oil and gas independent, if we ever want to be free of their market manipulations.
RECOR10
RECOR10 -3
Um, you really have no idea how the oil markets work...That said we - WERE - "Entergy Independent" BBB (Before Bidens Blunders). Fact is, even for Jet Fuel we depend on other nations that we should be depending on. I am not certain what the capacity of an airport is....one week? one month?

BUT...as a military brat (to aviators in my family)...I know for a fact that our military has access to fuel at any airport at any time if push came so shove. Lately, on our little blue ball there has been a whole lot of pushing and shoving and "running low" should never, not ever be an option.


Oh, and if you have a 401k or trade stocks you should LIKE higher profits...or, wait, no you shouldn't....wait. it is great for the 401k, wait...you are racist and evil...let me check with Biden for clarification - if he can recall who he is....
darjr26
darjr26 4
You need to learn how to spell and write coherent sentences.
RECOR10
RECOR10 -6
Insults, the only course of action for those who know they are ignorant or have no leg to stand on. Nice try, but, your being less than properly educated about how an economy or National Security works is, in my opinion probably the fault of the dismal failure we call "Public Schools".

There are two words with red underlines...nope, I don't care.

World War III? Hell...we need to worry about a CIVIL WAR in the US. The educated and hard-working against the Left.
williamableman
Isn't Austin going to be quite busy from now and into the future because some of the big silicon valley companies are moving there?
xtoler
Larry Toler 0
Wouldn't that mean less pax coming into Austin due to a heavier fuel load per aircraft?
bidrec
Richard Haas 1
Yes, for fifty seat and smaller aircraft. No, for seventy six seater and larger.

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