Originally Posted by
BigFlyer
It was a 737 that was not entirely full. My understanding was that there was not enough fuel to carry the number of passengers that were on the flight to the destination.
Since fuel goes into the fuel tanks, and not the passenger cabin, it is entirely possible that the fuel tanks were indeed full.
JetBlue runs into this problem every winter on its westbound transcons--even with seats kept empty, headwinds occasionally require a fuel stop enroute because the A320 just can't make it without dipping into required fuel reserves (which is Not A Good Thing unless it is an actual emergency).