IATA recently reported that the aviation industry experienced a 12-year high in traffic growth in the first six months of 2017. Air traffic is most definitely on the rise, and airports are going to need to consider how they can keep up with the demand.
One of the biggest challenges for airport operators that are facing the decision to sustain future growth is getting the uplift of aviation fuel correct because availability of jet fuel is absolutely central to an airport’s viability and sustainability.
Fuel uplift forecasting is a discipline that is very difficult to carry out, but it is essential in order to correctly size aviation fuel facilities and to ensure that sufficient capacity exists. The infrastructure at an airport must be able to support the existing levels of business. However, a growing airport may wish to attract new carriers as part of its projected levels of new business. It is essential that the airport is able to guarantee that the supply of fuel will be robust and sufficient for its needs – now and in the future.
The primary calculations can be done on forecast demand and analysis of fuel requirements and how this affects uplift infrastructure and storage.
Across the sector there are various rules of thumb and crude tools in use to determine and predict fuel uplift – often with less than ideal results, and we feel that a more analytical approach is necessary.
eJet has developed a highly-accurate prediction tool in-house, enabling us to not only plan fuel storage capacity, but also accurately calculate peak flow rates in a hydrant system, so that hydrant lines are an optimum size, and adequate flow rates can be achieved. We can also predict the correct size of the into-plane fuelling vehicle fleet, and this can result in significant cost savings.
Use of this tool could see operators save money and expand at an efficient momentum to meet growing demand, and create a sustainable solution for the future.
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