Jet-fuel crisis grounds Government staff
Government employees are being asked not to take non-essential air travel as the Auckland fuel crisis threatens to deepen.
The Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet issued the request, which spokeswoman Catherine Delore said was designed to reduce pressure on the airline industry.
The appeal came as fuel companies and airlines prepare to decide today whether more stringent fuel-rationing is needed to meet their target of reducing fuel usage at Auckland Airport by 70 per cent.
Increased flight cancellations were likely if tighter measures were required, Board of Airline Representatives (Barnz) executive director Justin Tighe-umbers, said.
But airlines and fuel companies were ‘‘working really hard’’ to avoid that.
Mobil Oil, BP and Z Energy have asked airlines to reduce their fuel consumption to 30 per cent of their normal level while Refining NZ repairs the broken pipeline that pipes jet fuel to the airport.
The 168 kilometre pipeline – which carries jet fuel, petrol and diesel directly from the oil refinery at Marsden Point in Northland to tanks in Wiri, South Auckland – has been out of action since Thursday afternoon after it was damaged, apparently by a digger.
A Mobil spokesman said airlines had been given ‘‘flexibility’’ about how they managed the cuts between Saturday and today. This reflected the fact it took time for airlines to adjust their schedules.
But if they did not appear on track with the cuts, the flexibility they had to decide how or when to cut consumption could be reduced from tomorrow.
That decision would be made ‘‘collaboratively’’ by fuel companies, Barnz and its 28 member airlines, he said.
Air New Zealand announced additional cancellations on Monday afternoon, explaining it was ‘‘not yet meeting the 30 per cent target’’. It cancelled 22 flights scheduled for yesterday and today.
But a source said yesterday morning that airlines overall appeared to be ‘‘just on track’’ to meet the 70 per cent reductiontarget for the initial five-day period, while indicating that was not yet in the bag.
Other factors that would come into the mix today would include Refining NZ’S latest estimate for repairing the pipeline, and the impact of other ‘‘mitigation’’ activities such as ship and ground trucking of fuel, the source said.
Despite the disruption, analysts did not believe the fuel incident would have a lasting impact on attracting new airlines to the country.
CAPA Centre for Aviation executive chairman Peter Harbison presumed steps would be taken to ensure there would be no repeat of the incident.
Refuelling en route is a particular nuisance for long-haul flights, he said.
‘‘It is very costly to have to make a stop purely for fuel uplift, both in time – a critical scheduling issue – and in fuel and crew costs, not to mention passenger time lost. In the short term many travellers might also explore other routes to get to their destinations.’’