Manchester airport ran out of fuel last night, leaving 150 flights unable to fill up at Britain’s third busiest airport.
Airlines and the airport operator said that contingency plans would nevertheless allow the thousands of passengers booked to fly through the country’s largest regional airport to escape widespread cancelations or diversions. Jets were loading extra fuel at other airports to allow them to complete return journeys.
None of the 150 flights expected to land or take off between 6pm Wednesday night and 6am Thursday morning were able to refuel after an oil refinery cut supplies because of quality concerns.
Stanlow Refinery at Ellesmere Port, also known as the Essar refinery, halted the flow of fuel through a supply pipeline on Wednesday morning as technicians inspected the fuel for impurities. The airport was forced to rely on back-up supplies, but those ran dry in the evening.
Passengers were advised to check with airlines to see if flights were cancelled or diverted to other airports, but a spokesman said that little disruption was expected.
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Shortly after fuel supplies had run out, the spokesman said that none of the airlines had cancelled flights because of the problem and that the airport was unaware of passengers being diverted.
Airlines including Ryanair, Flybe, easyJet, Virgin Atlantic and United were confident that flights would operate as scheduled. Virgin said that some long-haul flights might be delayed if they had to make an extra fuel stop elsewhere.
Flybe, one of the budget airlines flying out of Manchester, said: “All Flybe flights ... will continue operating as normal and will not be affected by the temporary fuel shortages forecast by the airport authorities. Passengers should check in as normal.”
Ryanair said: “We do not anticipate any cancellations and delays. We will load extra fuel at other airports to cope with any shortages.”
Manchester handles 600 flights a day and has overtaken Stansted to become the third-busiest airport in the country, behind Heathrow and Gatwick. A spokesman said that it had never before run out of fuel.
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The airport uses 3 million litres of aviation fuel every day, equal to 79 road tankers full of kerosene. A pipeline from the Essar refinery can pump 250,000 litres an hour. Supplies resumed last night, but the fuel had to be left to stand in storage tanks at the airport before it could be used to refuel passenger aircraft.
Virgin Atlantic, which has Manchester flights to Las Vegas and Orlando scheduled for about midday Thursday, said it was “not unduly concerned at the moment”. A spokesman said: “Our planes could have a pit stop in Ireland to refuel there if necessary.”
Manchester said it was doing everything it could to ensure service as normal. “We would like to apologise for any disruption that this may cause,” a spokesman said.