Fuel runs out at Manchester Airport

Passengers were left stranded at England's Manchester Airport, on Wednesday, after the airport ran out of aviation fuel.

Supplies were stopped in the early hours of Wednesday due to quality issues with fuel from the Essar refinery at Stanlow, near Ellesmere Port. Stocks were finally exhausted at around 6pm leaving up to ten flights facing cancellation, the airport said.

The airport said that this is the first time that it has ever run out - although it came close to doing so in 2008. It uses around three million litres of aviation fuel per day.

Fears were voiced that it could prompt a string of flight cancellations and delays if stocks were not replenished until early on Thursday morning. Thirteen flights were delayed because of the glitch, with 12 waiting for less than 30 minutes, while 17 departure flights also made a short stop at other UK airports to top up fuel before completing the onward journey.

The supply from the Essar refinery near Ellesmere Port was interrupted though for just 15 minutes after running out at 5.15pm. A total of three million litres of fuel was supplied overnight to the airport's fuel storage facility and meant operations returned to normal at 8.30am today, the airport said.

The airport uses around three million litres of aviation fuel per day. This is the equivalent of 79 road tankers, which carry approximately 38,000 litres per vehicle Chris Formby, operations director at Manchester Airport, said: "Although we initially warned about the potential for some cancellations and diversions based on the information from the fuel companies yesterday afternoon, disruption to passengers has been kept to an absolute minimum thanks to the airlines and the Essar refinery. "On behalf of the thousands of passengers travelling today and last night, we would like to thank our airline partners for the huge effort they put into contingency planning to mitigate the highly unusual problem with the fuel supply."

Fuel supplies at Manchester Airport have returned to normal, airport bosses confirmed on Thursday.