Some Seattle Flights Stop to Refuel as Pipeline Leak Persists
Delta Air Lines Is Transporting Extra Fuel Using Tanker Trucks While Pipeline Is Shut
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Some flights leaving Seattle have been forced to add additional stops to refuel after apipeline spillcut off jet fuel supply to the airport as it gears up for a surge in travel through the U.S. Thanksgiving holiday.
Alaska Air Group on Nov. 24 expected about 12 flights to require so-called tech stops, during which planes touch down at an additional airport to refuel while passengers remain onboard, said Tricia Bruckbauer, an airline spokesperson.
The affected routes included transcontinental flights and planes heading to Hawaii, Bruckbauer said.
Delta Air Lines also had some long-distance domestic flights making refueling stops, according to a statement Nov. 24 from the airline. Delta is transporting extra fuel using tanker trucks while the pipeline is shut, the statement said.
The disruptions at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, which serves as a major hub for Alaska and Delta, come after U.S.-mandatedflight restrictionssnarled flying during the government shutdown. Alaska, separately,grappled withIT outages last month that canceled and delayed flights.
Sea-Tac ranks No. 16 onTransport Topics' list of the busiest airports for cargoin North America.
More than 31 million people are expected tofly on US airlinesduring the Thanksgiving holiday period, according to an airline trade group.
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BP's Olympic Pipeline, which transports refined products including jet fuel through Washington and Oregon, has been mostly shut down since Nov. 11. A spokesperson for BP said the company doesn’t have a timeline for restarting operations.
Washington Gov. Bob Ferguson last week issued anwaiving some restrictions on commercial vehicles carrying jet fuel, noting that the airport “relies directly” on the pipeline for deliveries. Flights at Portland International Airport aren’t impacted by the disruption, a spokesperson said.
United Airlines hasn’t experienced any disruptions to its flights as of Nov. 24, according to a spokesperson.
Alaska’s other contingency plans included trucking in more fuel and flying it to Seattle on inbound planes, Bruckbauer said.
Roughly 10 Alaska flights made refueling stops Nov. 23. Nick Andre, 33, was on one of those flights from Seattle to Boston, headed home for Thanksgiving.
Andre said Alaska sent him a text message and email letting him know that his plane would stop in Billings, Mont., citing fueling constraints in Seattle caused by the temporary closing of the Olympic Pipeline.
Andre, a software engineer who lives in Seattle and travels to Boston frequently for work and family, said the total delay was around an hour.
“Given the circumstances, I was pleasantly surprised with the fact that Sea-Tac was still functioning,” Andre said.
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