O.R. Tambo’s Jet A-1 Supply Under Pressure as Airlines Activate Contingency Plans

By Garth Calitz

South Africa’s airline industry is taking precautionary measures to protect flight operations at Johannesburg’s O.R. Tambo International Airport following an unplanned shutdown at the Natref refinery, highlighting once again the vulnerability of the country’s aviation fuel supply chain.

There have been no widespread flight cancellations and Airports Company South Africa (ACSA) says there is currently sufficient fuel available to maintain operations. However, airlines are already adjusting their fuel strategies, while industry and government officials work on measures to secure alternative supplies should the disruption continue into September.

For the moment, therefore, everything is “under control” — which in aviation tends to be one of those phrases that makes everyone quietly check the fuel gauges again.

The immediate problem stems from an unplanned shutdown of a downstream unit at Sasol’s Natref refinery in Sasolburg. Sasol confirmed that the incident has affected its ability to meet its full supply commitments for certain fuel grades, including Jet A-1 supplied to customers at O.R. Tambo. The company says it continues to partially supply its Jet A-1 customers while mitigation measures are being implemented and repairs are undertaken.

The significance of the disruption lies in Natref’s importance to Johannesburg. According to ACSA, the refinery normally supplies between 70% and 80% of O.R. Tambo’s Jet A-1 requirements. The remainder is supplied from coastal sources, including fuel transported inland through the Multi-Product Pipeline and dedicated rail deliveries.

That dependence means that even a temporary interruption at Natref can quickly become an aviation issue. It also raises the slightly awkward question of why the country's largest international airport is so heavily dependent on one inland refinery for the fuel required to keep thousands of passengers moving every day.

For airlines, the response has been to secure additional supplies wherever possible. FlySafair says it has temporarily increased supplies from alternative providers and has contingency arrangements in place to protect its operations. The airline has also identified fuel tankering as a possible additional safeguard.

Tankering involves loading an aircraft with additional fuel at an airport where supplies are available, allowing it to arrive at Johannesburg with more fuel already on board and reducing the amount it needs to uplift at O.R. Tambo.

It is an effective operational buffer, but an expensive one. Fuel is heavy, and an aircraft carrying additional fuel has to burn more fuel to carry that extra weight. In other words, when your fuel supply is under pressure, the solution can be to carry more fuel around with you. It works, but nobody would describe it as elegant. FlySafair describes tankering as a last-resort measure that can nevertheless provide valuable flexibility when fuel supplies at a destination become constrained.

The airline says that, for now, its operations remain protected by the contingency measures already implemented and that the current situation is not resulting in flight cancellations. South African Airways has similarly activated contingency measures and is working with the relevant stakeholders to protect its domestic, regional and international operations.

The airport operator says O.R. Tambo currently has approximately 6.3 days of Jet A-1 stock (As of Friday 28 August) based on prevailing consumption and supply patterns. It is maintaining active stock management measures across its airport network and closely monitoring replenishment.

Six-point-three days sounds reasonably reassuring — until one remembers that the problem is not necessarily going away in six-point-three days. That buffer is important because Natref’s disruption could extend considerably beyond the initial shutdown.

Sasol has advised Transnet Pipelines and the Fuels Industry Association of South Africa that the repair and recommissioning programme is expected to affect refinery production, particularly Jet A-1 availability, from approximately 6 September to 4 October, subject to the successful completion of repairs. That is potentially a rather long time to be hoping that the aviation fuel supply chain continues to perform perfectly. This creates a potential gap between the amount of fuel available at O.R. Tambo and the volume required to maintain normal airline operations over several weeks.

The industry is therefore looking beyond the airport itself. Increased coastal fuel imports, additional movements through the country's fuel distribution network and greater use of available pipeline and rail capacity are among the measures being considered to compensate for reduced inland production. A formal mitigation plan involving Sasol, Transnet Pipelines and the fuel industry is expected to be submitted to Transport Minister Barbara Creecy.

South Africa has lost a significant amount of its domestic refining capacity over recent years, leaving the aviation sector increasingly dependent on imported refined fuel. O.R. Tambo is particularly vulnerable because of its inland location and its heavy reliance on Natref.

This is not the first time that Natref has created concerns for aviation fuel supplies. The refinery experienced serious disruptions in 2025, forcing the industry and government to arrange additional supplies for O.R. Tambo.

One might therefore have hoped that the lessons from the previous disruption would have produced a supply system with rather more redundancy by now. Instead, here we are again, discussing fuel tankering and alternative supply routes while assuring everyone that the situation remains manageable. The latest incident consequently raises questions about whether South Africa has sufficient strategic aviation-fuel resilience to withstand another prolonged disruption.

The challenge for airlines is not simply finding fuel somewhere in the country. Jet A-1 has to be moved to where it is needed, in sufficient quantities and with the appropriate infrastructure available to receive and store it.

Bringing more fuel into Durban, for example, does not automatically solve a shortage at Johannesburg. The product still has to move inland by pipeline or rail, while storage capacity and pipeline injection capabilities can also become constraints. The aviation industry has therefore been forced to look at a combination of measures rather than relying on a single alternative source.

If airlines are forced to tanker significant quantities of fuel into Johannesburg for an extended period, operating costs will rise. Aircraft carrying additional fuel consume more fuel, while additional logistical arrangements can add further expense. Airlines will have to decide how much of those costs they can absorb and whether prolonged disruption could eventually feed into ticket prices.

Ultimately, passengers do not care very much where the Jet A-1 comes from. They simply expect the aircraft to have enough of it when they arrive at the airport. That expectation becomes considerably more complicated when the country's biggest aviation hub depends so heavily on a single refinery. This problem could very easily be passed on to the flying public through increased flight ticket costs, which will effectively make the fuel shortage much more of a reality for passengers.

The real concern is what happens if the Natref outage lasts for several weeks and the alternative supply chain is placed under sustained pressure. The current situation is therefore best understood not as an immediate aviation fuel crisis, but as a stress test of South Africa’s aviation fuel supply system.

O.R. Tambo’s dependence on a single inland refinery means that a relatively localised industrial problem can rapidly become a national aviation issue. And perhaps that is the real lesson here. An aviation system that requires airlines to start carrying extra fuel around the country because the country's primary inland fuel source has stopped supplying enough of it is not exactly the definition of resilience.

The next few weeks will determine whether South Africa’s alternative supply infrastructure is robust enough to compensate for Natref’s reduced output — or whether airlines will have to rely increasingly on costly operational measures such as fuel tankering to keep Johannesburg’s aviation hub moving.

Because, apparently, when you cannot guarantee enough fuel at the airport, the next best solution is to make sure the aircraft bring their own.