chuck1

I'm reporting this second hand, but this is the story today as it was told to me on UA791 BZN-ORD.
-inbound arrives about one hour late
-outbound due to depart 12:30pm
-can't board because "there is no fuel" at BZN and waiting for advice/instructions
-finally told a couple of hours later fuel system at BZN (at least for UA's vendor) is broken and they are trucking fuel in from BIL
-eventually board around 3pm or so with a further delay every 10 minutes or so
-last delay was to 4pm
-at one point tanker truck arrived and parked under wing but no fuel was put on aircraft
-at one point also contemplated flying BZN-DEN to pick up enough fuel to continue to ORD but that idea was nixed
-finally around 4:30pm (4 hours past departure) Captain was told that United had used up their allotment of fuel for the day
-flight rescheduled for next day about 24 hours later as fuel wouldn't arrive until 11am

What the real story here? Contractor with a broken fuel system? I can't believe United ran out of their allotment for the day.
Other airlines like Southwest seemed to have problems but others were on-time or close to it. Perhaps a different fueling company?

DrinkSlinger

BZN-PHL AA flight also affected, stopped in DEN to refuel.

https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/amer...7-18-21-a.html

drewguy

If they had enough fuel to go to DEN, why not stop in BIL and refuel there?

clubord

BIL may be short on gas as well….

DLASflyer

Not the first time this has happened at BZN this summer.

beachmouse

A lot of smaller leisure destination airports this summer have allowed more flights than they have the infrastructure to really handle.

noah

This happened a week or so ago in BTV; flights had to stop in MHT for fuel in some cases.

drewguy

Thought they had enough to truck in . . .

LateatPHL

Maybe they should be building more storage tanks rather than all the private hangers.... My snarky response as someone who is in and out of BZN frequently.

lincolnjkc

Just as a point of clarification for the vast majority of airports in the US (except for the diminishing number of slot-controlled airports -- DCA, LGA, JFK according to the FAA + LGB (grandfathered but not on the FAA's list) -- if an airline wants to operate a flight there's not really an "allow"/"disallow" process. In other words an airport doesn't really have the ability to veto an airline's service.

Of course the airline has to lease or arrange for access the facilities [ticket counters, gates, etc], labor (ground handling, etc.) and pay fees like landing, PFC, etc -- but as long as they do this and assuming that the airport has accepted virtually any level of federal funding/grants (I think there might be 1 in the US with commercial service that has not received something from the FAA) they can pretty much operate as many flights as they like with whatever equipment they like.

[ETA: Also worth mentioning, of course, there's a ready solution to this problem frequently used with airports that have high fuel prices or limited availability: "tanker" enough fuel on the inbound to also do the outbound. There are tradeoffs like limiting cargo capacity and the fact that every pound of fuel you bring in is weight you're burning more fuel to transport... but "No gas here" isn't really a reason on its own to not operate a flight]

Of course airlines should plan their services with due care for the limitations of an airport's infrastructure but it's not like BZN can say "nope, you can't do that flight" or "nope, you can't have more than 2 flights" (arguably if they did there may be an Airline Deregulation Act issue) -- the best they can do is "if you do that flight we can't guarantee that suppliers on the airport (e.g. fuel) will be able to fully meet your needs"

beachmouse

My local airport is slot limited (joint DoD-civilian agreement) so I tend to forget that not every airport has daily caps. And local airport seems to be manipulating the caps to 'borrow' slots from select weekdays and create extreme overcrowding on Saturdays (beach condo changeover day) as well as cutting a deal to start service with WN this summer even though there were limitations on physical gate and counter space and WN is currently really shoehorned into inadequate space.

MysteryTour

https://www.kbzk.com/news/local-news...engers-delayed

Another case of demand outstripping supply right now.

raidersfan1

FAT had the same issue with lack of fuel earlier this month (as did ACV). It was primarily based on lack of delivery truck drivers to bring the fuel in as stated in the article about FAT below.

https://www.fresnobee.com/news/local...252638788.html

flyerCO

Those hangers normally store planes, which need fuel to operate. Some will only need 100 low lead, but plenty will also need Jet A. More planes means great chance of more/bigger storage tanks.



Which airport is this? Something tells me if an airline forced their hand, airport would be required to allow flights.

pseudoswede

Do the locals call the newspaper "The FAT Bee"? Asking for a friend...