Airlines canceled dozens of flights from Colombia on Monday, citing declining fuel supplies as the cause, but industry and government disagree.
National airline Avianca, which canceled 24 flights on Monday, according to Colombia’s air transport regulator, said in a statement that suppliers had advised it to limit deliveries of kerosene “for the rest of the month.”
According to the FlightAware tracking platform, Avianca flights to Sao Paulo, Santiago, Mexico City and Cancun were affected.
Latin America’s largest airline, LATAM, for its part, had to cancel 36 flights scheduled for Tuesday due to “restrictions on the supply of Jet A1 fuel at some airports.”
State oil company Ecopetrol reported that an “electrical outage” affected production at its Cartagena refinery (Reficar) between August 16 and 18.
Ecopetrol has announced it will import 100,000 barrels of jet fuel, potentially leading to a rise in ticket prices, the Ministry of Transport said.
The International Air Transport Association (IATA) warned on Sunday that a fuel shortage would lead to cancelled flights and flights with fewer passengers per plane.
According to IATA, which represents more than 300 airlines, distributors have suspended fuel supplies to 11 terminals, while many others issued warnings of “critical” stock levels.
The international airport in Bogota, a major hub in Latin America, has enough fuel for seven days of use. In Medellin, the country’s second-largest city, there are two days of reserves, Ecopetrol President Ricardo Roa said.
However, the Aerocivil airport authority insisted that supplies of jet fuel were “sufficient”.
President Gustavo Petro, who initially denied there was a problem, later blamed fuel distributor Terpel, owned by Chilean oil company Copec, for the situation and said “investigations” would be carried out by market regulators.
Terpel in turn blamed the problems at the Reficar refinery.
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