Airlines have been battling fuel costs, which means rising fees for passengers, but one airport in the UK completely ran out of fuel, causing a headache for passengers whose flights were delayed.
On Thursday morning, 30 flights were delayed or disrupted at the Manchester Airport after the airport ran out of fuel for the first time in history.
A batch of fuel from the airport's source at the Stanlow oil refinery in Ellesmere Port, Cheshire, was found to be contaminated. The line to the airport was turned off temporarily on Wednesday morning.
The airport turned to reserve fuel supplies from their on-site tanks, but the resources were depleted because of a recent four-day holiday rush weekend for the Diamond Jubilee.
The fuel issue was fixed on Wednesday evening, but it takes a while for fuel to be delivered to the airport. A spokesperson told the Daily Mail,: 'The fuel supply from the refinery came back on at 5.30pm, it takes four hours for the fuel to get from the refinery to the airport, and it will then need time to settle.'
Airlines had to wait for the fuel tanks to refill and many were not able to refuel until 8:30am on Thursday.
Although the shortage caused initial worry, the incident did not cause a major disruption. Thirteen scheduled flights were stranded due to not having enough fuel to depart. Most flights that were delayed only had to wait about 30 minutes except for a flight to Tunisia that was delayed for two and a half hours Thursday morning. Seventeen other flights made unscheduled stops to other airports to refuel.
"Most of the flights are operating normally," an airport spokesman told the Daily Mail. "There were no cancellations, no diversions, and most of the airlines have made contingency plans for fuel."
A statement on the airport's website read: 'We would like to apologise for any disruption that this may cause and assure our customers that everything possible is being done to return operations to normal.'
Manchester Airport is the third biggest airport in the UK, with over 18 million people passing through last year.
This article is copyrighted by Travelers Today, the travel news leader
