If you’re flying in the coming days, in particular in the Southeast of the United States, this is something to keep an eye on.
In this post:
Biggest gasoline pipeline in the USA hacked
Over the weekend a group that calls itself DarkSide hacked the Colonial Pipeline, causing it to shut down its network, including the country’s biggest gasoline pipeline.
This is no doubt a strange situation — the group said today that it didn’t mean to create havoc, but rather the goal is to just make money. It’s unknown when the pipeline will be operational again, but it’s expected to take several days, if not longer.
This pipeline typically provides nearly half of the oil that goes to the Southeast region, and this will have major implications. We’re now seeing the first signs of that with airlines.
American Airlines adds refueling stops for flights
As noted by @xJonNYC, American Airlines has added refueling stops for some of its longer flights out of Charlotte tomorrow.
For example, American’s flight from Charlotte to Honolulu is expected to stop in Dallas.
Meanwhile American’s flight from Charlotte to London is expected to stop in Boston.
Unless this situation gets resolved very shortly, I imagine that this is only the beginning, and that things are about to get a lot worse.
Assuming nothing changes, airlines won’t have the jet fuel that they need to operate their current schedules. They could address this in a few ways (or a combination of all of them):
- Airlines could cancel flights
- Airlines could add fuel stops on longer flights (as we’re seeing above)
- Airlines could simply carry more fuel when flying to the Southeast so that they don’t require as much fuel, though there are limits to that
Bottom line
We’re potentially looking at a significant shortage of jet fuel in the Southeast of the United States due to a hacked fuel pipeline.
This is already causing major headaches for airlines, and American has become the first airline to schedule fuel stops on upcoming flights due to this issue. If you’re flying through the Southeast of the United States in the coming days, definitely keep an eye on this situation, because you could be impacted.
If anyone has a flight that’s impacted by this issue, please share your experience below!
@EBWaa
Little Joey carter 2.0 is a useless weakling. We already have 4% inflation , 50% price rise in consumer goods, gas shortages , war in the Middle East , labor shortage , Shall I continue ?
Leave Ben out of this he’s on vacation I know you’re bored and lonely it’s slow in the aviation news at the moment.
Psht it’s just an excuse to funnel more pax as both routes have had very low load factors since relaunching. Shame that this situation is being used this way.
Gotta love the trumplodytes going nuts here. These are probably the types that burst into tears and start screeching about how Ben shouldn’t bring politics into posts. They’re all lunatics and freaks.
I just did AA HNL to NY via CLT both ways and it was a surprisingly good experience in First. Pleasant F/A’s, Good Food and Drinks, on-time flights, and the newest and best Seats on the 777-200. Glad I got to do it while it was still a Nonstop between HNL and CLT!
@Sir Walter Raleigh
Dimwit.
Take responsibility for some action for once please and stop blaming everything on the CCP without any evidence. Get a life!
Hacked?
More like a leak resulting from fatigue due to long term reduced use then suddenly going at high volimes again.
I recently did reservist with our secret force that deals with cyber warfare. Please drop any notion that nations are led by people like Dr Evil, who wants to screw or annoy us a little bit only. I won't say too much, but the enemy was always at home... the ones have-nots, the...
Hacked?
More like a leak resulting from fatigue due to long term reduced use then suddenly going at high volimes again.
I recently did reservist with our secret force that deals with cyber warfare. Please drop any notion that nations are led by people like Dr Evil, who wants to screw or annoy us a little bit only. I won't say too much, but the enemy was always at home... the ones have-nots, the dissented. Yes, other Americans.
One of the things I feel that has gotten out of hand, is the assumption that elite status is earned.
Why can't we all just get along?
I’m surprised AA is making its longhauls make a tach stop rather than maybe have short hauls tanker in to relieve the pressure on the low supply. (Or maybe they are, but supply really is that tight?)
@Greg,
please see Delta's 10K.
Our wholly owned subsidiaries, Monroe Energy, LLC and MIPC, LLC (collectively, "Monroe"), operate the Trainer refinery and related assets located near
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The facilities include pipelines and terminal assets that allow the refinery to supply jet fuel to our airline operations throughout the
Northeastern U.S., including our New York hubs at LaGuardia and JFK.
They have previously stated that they supply their BOS hub from...
@Greg,
please see Delta's 10K.
Our wholly owned subsidiaries, Monroe Energy, LLC and MIPC, LLC (collectively, "Monroe"), operate the Trainer refinery and related assets located near
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The facilities include pipelines and terminal assets that allow the refinery to supply jet fuel to our airline operations throughout the
Northeastern U.S., including our New York hubs at LaGuardia and JFK.
They have previously stated that they supply their BOS hub from the refinery but it may well use Colonial which has manually restarted parts of the pipeline.
13:32 UTC update - it looks like AA569 is -not- stopping (or COG) in DFW today after all per FlightStats
@TimDunn
I don’t know where you’re getting your info but it’s incorrect. The only direct airport connection from the Delta owned Trainer refinery is with PHL. To reach NYC (Linden NJ to be exact) it has to travel up the Colonial pipeline, which as we know, closed.
Boston is not connected to the Colonial pipeline, it is waterborne, so unless Delta has their own fuel tankers or ocean going barges, they’re as screwed as everyone else.
@Juan
Thank you! As a Michigander, the pipeline is a complex issue. The company that "maintains" the pipeline is no gem of a corporate citizen based on past issues, which is why it's the pipeline is a big issue.
Good point, David. No need to spread misinformation like the first comment. #Stop AAPI Hate.
@DenB
KeystoneXL would make absolutely no difference here because the heavy oil it would transport is not suited to turn into jet fuel when it eventually reaches refineries in Texas.
And Keystone XL only goes from Alberta to Nebraska anyway before it joins existing infrastructure.
@DenB® You mean the pipeline in Michigan that is aging, in need of repairs, and could leak into the Great Lakes, threatening the water supply of the state, Canada, and states downstream? What a shame to have a governor in Michigan actually can about water quality...
@DenB® is too stupid to understand how pipelines are different.
@IntlBizTraveler, LOL
American needs to change their slogan from “Going for Great” to “Going for Gas”
An hour to gas up seems excessive
@Sir Walter Raleigh
Could you not spread fake news? Chances are very good that these are Russian hackers, given they use GetUserDefaultLangID tools to make sure the target they're hacking doesn't use Russian, Ukrainian, Belarusian etc.; languages from counties that were affiliated with the old Soviet state.
@DenB give up the partisan crap. The Canadian pipelines carry crude to refineries in the US. The pipeline that got shut down carries the finished products from the refineries to end users.
ATL has a lot higher percentage of fuel reserves relative to demand than CLT or other east coast airports.
and Delta has a refinery outside of PHL that supplies its own NYC and BOS hubs and which sells its non-jet fuel products on the market. With so few refineries left in the northeast, Delta is in a unique position for its own operations but also in supplying markets in the northeast.
This whole...
ATL has a lot higher percentage of fuel reserves relative to demand than CLT or other east coast airports.
and Delta has a refinery outside of PHL that supplies its own NYC and BOS hubs and which sells its non-jet fuel products on the market. With so few refineries left in the northeast, Delta is in a unique position for its own operations but also in supplying markets in the northeast.
This whole thing will be crippling if it takes even a week to resolve; supplies will take weeks to restore. That hacks are taking place is not a huge surprise; the real surprise it that it is taking a week to get the pipeline back online.
Meanwhile POTUS cancels Keystone XL and Michigan Governor cancels another Canadian pipeline. Surely while we're still dependent on petroleum-based fuels, we should maintain some redundancy in our supply systems? How does "The Southeast" become crippled by a single pipeline? That's known in the Engineering field as a "single point of failure". It's a bad thing.
ATL is probably going to get some major disruptions as well. There are still quite a good number of long haul flights operating right now.
Chinese state actor