Fuel supply woes diverted more than 20 flights at Fresno’s airport. See who was impacted
Supply problems for a vendor of jet fuel at Fresno’s airport for several days last week forced some airlines to divert departing flights to other airports to top off their tanks before they could continue on to their destinations.
American Airlines acknowledged to The Bee on Tuesday its fuel supplier at Fresno Yosemite International Airport “experienced a brief issue last week” that disrupted some of its flight schedule.
The problems surfaced last Wednesday as airport passengers took to social media to express frustration with delays that airline customer service representatives said were due to a lack of fuel for departing jets.
A review of airlines’ flight history on the air travel tracking site FlightAware.com for the past week indicates that more than 20 flights departing from Fresno were diverted to intermediate airports to fuel up before heading on to the original destination, including some over the Fourth of July weekend.
No diversions or delays were noted on Monday or Tuesday.
So far, there has been no explanation by the affected airlines or the fuel providers at the airport about what caused the issue.
On social media last week, Fresno Yosemite International Airport’s Twitter account responded to irritated passengers wanting to know how an airport can run out of fuel. “Each airline has a business relationship with an independent fuel provider at the airport,” the account tweeted on Wednesday and again on Thursday. “At the time, the fuel providers have not indicated they are out of fuel.”
An airport representative indicated that there are two fuel vendors at Fresno Yosemite International Airport: Signature Flight Support and Ross Aviation.
“Our fuel vendor experienced a brief issue late last week, and we worked to limit impact to our customers,” Derek Walls, a corporate communications spokesperson for American Airlines, told The Bee in an email Tuesday morning. “All fuel systems are now back on track.”
Walls declined to elaborate on the supply issues or how they affected the airline’s traffic patterns last week. Signature Flight Support is reportedly the fuel vendor for American Airlines at Fresno.
Representatives from Signature’s Fresno station and its corporate office in Florida did not respond to requests from The Bee for information. Ross Aviation’s local office did not return a call last week from The Bee, but a representative from Ross Aviation’s corporate office in Colorado said Tuesday that the company is not a supplier of fuel.
Seven American Airlines’ flights from Fresno were affected by diversions on Wednesday – four to Dallas, two to Phoenix and one to Chicago. Three of the Dallas flights were diverted first northwest to San Jose for fueling before turning around and heading southeast to Texas; another flight stopped in Las Vegas for fuel before continuing to Dallas.
The two Phoenix flights – one operated by SkyWest Airlines and another by Mesa Airlines – stopped at Meadows Field in Bakersfield before continuing to Phoenix. The Chicago flight was diverted first to San Francisco.
One additional Fresno-to-Dallas flight on American was diverted first to Las Vegas on Thursday, and a Friday flight was canceled, according to the FlightAware flight-tracking history.
Thirteen flights aboard United Airlines also reflected diversions on the flight history between Wednesday and Sunday: seven from Fresno to Denver, three to San Francisco, two to Chicago and one to Los Angeles. All but one of those were United Express flights operated by SkyWest Airlines.
Neither United Airlines nor SkyWest responded to queries Tuesday from The Bee.
Flight histories indicate that a Saturday flight by Alaska Airlines from Fresno to Seattle was diverted to Sacramento before moving on.
Southwest Airlines indicated it had some minor delays for inbound flights to Fresno to ensure there was extra fuel on board to make their return trips. Southwest operates flights from Fresno to Denver and Las Vegas.
This story was originally published July 6, 2021 at 1:40 PM.
