Manchester airport to run out of fuel

Manchester airport is facing a fuel crisis for the first time in its history. This airport has ran out of fuel because of quality concerns from Stanlow oil refinery, which has a pipeline to the airport, capable of pumping 250,000 litres of fuel an hour. The airport hopes the problem will be resolved by midnight Wednesday but the effects will continue until Thursday as it takes 8 hours to pump a day’s supply of fuel. 150 flights are expected to be affected during this time. Emergency meetings have been carried out but the alternative method of 79 tanker trucks for just enough fuel for a day’s supply deemed unrealistic. The airlines spokesman advised people to check flight times before making the journey to the airport.

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I believe that the airport should never have ran out of fuel. The fact that they are such a large scale company means that they should have emergency mechanisms for if supply cannot meet demand. A business of this size using the Just-in-Time method is very risky, all it takes is one simple mistake and the productivity of the business drops dramatically. Although it could not be expected because since the business is so big, the suppliers must be too. They should be expected to do business with no mistakes, as they have done in the past.


Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/jun/06/manchester-airport-run-out-fuel