Seattle Tacoma International Airport (SEA) is facing issues with its fuel supply, and it’s starting to impact passengers. This isn’t exactly a great week for these kinds of issues, as we approach the busy Thanksgiving travel period.
In this post:
Airlines prepare for fuel disruptions at SeaTac Airport
The Olympic Pipeline, which supplies fuel to SeaTac Airport, has been facing issues in recent times. Last week, it was shut down, following discovery of a leak. While it was briefly restored, an additional fuel leak was discovered a short while later, causing it to be halted once again. The pipeline is operated by BP Pipelines North America, and the company has indicated that there’s no timeline for service to be restored.
As a result, Washington Governor Bob Ferguson has issued an emergency proclamation, warning of potentially significant impacts to the state’s biggest airport, if service isn’t restored by Saturday evening. At this point that seems highly unlikely, as new issues have just been discovered, meaning parts of the pipeline are now being excavated, to allow for visual inspection.
While fuel is being trucked to SeaTac Airport at higher volumes, it’s hard to keep up with the amount that would ordinarily run through the pipeline.
Airlines are starting to make Seattle refueling stops
Up until now, flights have mostly been operating pretty smoothly at SeaTac Airport, since there’s a delayed impact to the pipeline issues (as there’s a fuel reserve at the airport).
However, we’re starting to see our first flights impacted, on some of the airport’s longest routes (thanks to readers Ian and Nicholas for flagging this). Specifically, Taiwanese carriers EVA Air and Starlux Airlines have both added refueling stops to their Taipei (TPE) service out of Seattle. EVA Air is operating via Anchorage (ANC), while Starlux is operating via Portland (PDX).
Alaska and Delta are the two biggest airlines at the airport, and while they’re not yet impacted, they are making preparations. In a statement, an Alaska spokesperson shared the following:
“To ensure our scheduled service is maintained without significant disruption, we are preparing contingency plans, which include fuel management strategies such as tankering in fuel on inbound flights to Seattle, assessing tech stop options along certain routes to conserve fuel, and maintaining and expanding our trucking operation to bring in additional fuel supply.”
Meanwhile Delta released the following statement:
“While we work with our fuel supply partners to actively mitigate any disruptions to supply, customers are encouraged to check the status of their flights before departing for the airport until the situation is resolved.”
It seems highly likely that operations will soon be impacted on a widespread basis (especially for long haul flights, where tankering in fuel on inbound flights isn’t practical), so be sure to keep an eye on your flight status.
Bottom line
SeaTac Airport is facing a major fuel shortage, due to ongoing issues with the Olympic Pipeline. While the pipeline issues have been there for days now, there’s a delay with this impacting airline operations, and it seems like we’re about to reach the point where the airport will have a serious fuel shortage.
Some airlines are starting to schedule refueling stops on long haul flights, and with pipeline issues ongoing, don’t be surprised to see this become significantly more common.
What do you make of this SeaTac fuel situation?
Well thankfully I left for Europe before this! I had a wonderful stay at the NH Collection Brussels Centre.
@Ben Schlappig you really should do a review of the GHA Discovery Loyalty program, as I said in you Cappella article it’s a super useful program for those who want top tier status, but either can’t get a credit card with status or don’t travel enough to get status the old fashioned way.
Third world country through and through