By KEITH RIDLER, Associated Press

BOISE, Idaho (AP) – Airport officials facing jet fuel shortages fear they will have to leave planes and helicopters that drop fire retardants during what could be a fierce wildfire season, potentially endangering surrounding communities.

Sporadic shortages at some oil tanker bases in Oregon and Utah have already been reported. The concern is that several bases are drying up simultaneously during what is shaping up to be a busy wildfire season in the western United States. Oil tanker bases in Arizona, where many large fires burn, also had jet fuel supply issues last month.

“We’ve never encountered this before,” said Jessica Gardetto, spokesperson for the National Interagency Fire Center in Boise, Idaho, and a former forest firefighter. “That’s a scary thought, with all the shortages going on right now.”

Officials at airports, aviation supply companies and jet fuel transportation companies have said demand for jet fuel has declined sharply and supply chains have shrunk during the coronavirus pandemic. They have yet to rebound in the western United States even as the economy grows and more passengers flock to airports on seriously delayed trips.

According to the United States Energy Information Administration, jet fuel supplied to the United States in 2020 has fallen 38% from levels before the 2019 pandemic. Demand for jet fuel has increased by approximately 26% since early this year, although it did not hit 2019 levels. The administration’s weekly oil condition report for July 2 shows demand at 78% of 2019 levels. increase from 44% of 2019 levels for the same period in 2020, when the pandemic took hold.

Overall, the administration said, US jet fuel inventories are at or above the five-year average, except in the Rocky Mountains, where they are 1% lower. This seems to indicate that the supply chain is the potential problem, various industry officials have said.

“COVID has put everyone to sleep,” said Mark Haynes, vice president of sales for Avfuel Corporation, based in Ann Arbor, Mich., Which supplies jet fuel across the United States, including to about half of the country’s 44 tanker bases operated by the US Forest Service or US Bureau of Land Management in the western states. Some states also maintain tanker bases.

“Our business has gone down to almost zero,” Haynes said. “A lot of trucking companies have had to lay off drivers (jet fuel). What happened with the opening of the United States, the demand for pleasure travel has exploded.”

Chris Kunkle is vice president of operations for the Central Coast Jet Center in Santa Maria, California. It is a private airport known as a fixed operator that provides services for private jets, such as refueling. It also serves as the base for Forest Service tankers and is large enough for DC-10 tankers.

“In the blink of an eye, we can have a fire here in our response area that can bring in one to three DC-10s and a bunch of tank planes of varying sizes,” he said. “We can go from a few thousand gallons (3,800 liters) per day to 50,000 (190,000 liters) at 60,000 gallons (227,000 liters)”

He said he liked to keep 60,000 gallons (227,000 liters) at the airport, but had problems with limited deliveries. He is afraid to flee if a big fire breaks out in the area.

Decisions about where fuel is going can be difficult. Commercial jet travel can be a huge economic driver in many communities. Air ambulances also need fuel. Industry officials said the problems faced by large commercial carriers this year appeared to be more related to shortages of workers and pilots than to a lack of jet fuel.

Jeff Cyphers of Stockton, Calif. Humboldt Pacific LCC, said he was expanding the company’s fleet of 20 jet fuel tankers to haul fuel to West Coast states and, during fire season from forest, Idaho, Montana and Utah. He said there was currently both a shortage of drivers and jet fuel to deliver.

“The current supply chain is probably the most fragile I have ever seen in my years of experience,” said Cyphers, who has been in the industry since 1986.

Most major airports such as Denver, Seattle and Boise are supplied by pipeline. But many smaller outlying airports, such as Aspen, Colorado, and Jackson, Wyoming, and Hailey, Idaho, near the resort town of Sun Valley, rely on delivery of jet fuel by truck. The same is true for many airports with tanker bases, some hundreds of kilometers from jet fuel refineries or pipelines.

Cyphers said his company even trucked jet fuel to pipeline-supplied airports because they had not received their full allocation of jet fuel.

Hundreds of planes are used to fight forest fires each year. Most of the country’s big time bombers are jets. Turboprop delay bombers also use jet fuel. They lay red fire retardant strips in front of approaching flames to support ground crews who are more likely to hold a line of fire after a retard bomber has dropped.

Most firefighting helicopters also use jet fuel.

It is not clear whether jet fuel supplies and delivery systems can be stepped up in time for this wildfire season to avoid potential problems keeping firefighting planes aloft if several large fires break out in the West.

“Not this year,” predicted Cyphers, of the trucking company. “I could be wrong, but I don’t expect them to be able to bridge that gap.”

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