San Diego Airport Still Feeling Effects of Temporary Fuel Shortage Caused by Pipeline Leak

A fuel supply shortage stemming from a pipeline leak continued to affect some flights at San Diego International Airport on Tuesday, forcing at least one carrier to make a stop in Los Angeles to refuel.

The fuel issue, caused by a leak in a key pipeline east of Los Angeles, was expected to be resolved by Tuesday evening, with normal fuel supplies resuming Wednesday, said a spokesperson for Kinder Morgan, which operates the pipeline.

"Work continues, and we expect to begin refilling the pipeline this evening, with fuel to be delivered into San Diego in the early morning of Wednesday, January 4," the company said in a statement.

San Diego airport officials were unable to provide any information Tuesday on how many flights were disrupted by the shortage of fuel, referring all inquiries to individual airlines. Over the long holiday weekend, some airlines did have to make unplanned stops in Los Angeles, Phoenix or Las Vegas to fill up.

On Tuesday, a British Airways nonstop flight from San Diego to London, which was scheduled to depart at 6:25 p.m., was expected to make a stop first at Los Angeles International Airport to refuel before flying to Heathrow Airport.

"Today's flight will stop briefly in Los Angeles for additional fuel before continuing to London Heathrow," the airline said in an emailed statement. "We have apologised to our customers for the delay."

Southwest Airlines, which has been resuming normal flight operations after having to slash its schedule by two-thirds last week, said it was not being affected Tuesday by the fuel supply shortage in San Diego. According to the flight-tracking website FlightAware, the airline did show 12 canceled flights in and out of San Diego, in addition to 99 delays, although the vast majority of those were out of other airports.

"Our fuel in San Diego is currently adequate, and we're utilizing tanker trucks for additional support," said a Southwest spokesperson. "We continue to monitor the situation to plan for any potential impacts."

The delays, the airline said, were not related to fuel shortages, but rather winter weather in Minneapolis and other severe storms in the middle of the country.

While Alaska Airlines was forced to make fuel stops for some of its flights departing San Diego over the last few days, that was not the case on Tuesday, the airline said. The earlier fuel stops delayed flights by no more than 30 minutes, Alaska said.

The leak in a fuel pipeline serving San Diego was first discovered Dec. 20 by Kinder Morgan, which shut down the pipeline so repairs could be made. The leak was discovered at Iron-Wood Nine Golf Course in Cerritos, an eastern suburb of Los Angeles.

The inability to use the pipeline to get fuel to the airport is forcing airlines to truck in fuel, but fuel trucks lack the capacity to supply enough fuel for the hundreds of jets at the airport, according to social media posts and reporting on the travel blog Johnny Jet. In one instance, United Airlines sent a message to one of its customers flying from San Diego to Newark, N.J., pointing out that the flight would be making an additional stop for fuel "due to an airport-wide fuel shortage" at the airport.

On Monday, Kinder Morgan had anticipated that the pipeline would return to service by the following day, but that has now been extended to Wednesday morning. It pointed out that it had been monitoring air quality at the site and said there are no environmental or safety concerns for the public.

This story originally appeared in San Diego Union-Tribune.

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