Technical and commercial priorities for the aviation industry align in spectacular fashion when problems with jet fuel supply threaten to shut down an airport. While there have been several close calls, a dense web of industry protocols that IATA has helped to implement has kept airplanes flying through even the most tenuous supply circumstances at airports on the ground (JFI May16,p1). The genesis for these contingency plans traces back to a longstanding culture of cooperation that IATA has fostered through its aviation fuel working groups for technical and commercial operations. The Buncefield oil depot explosion in 2005 provided further impetus to tighten up protocols, by revealing the need for a coordinated response in the event of a major supply disruption (JFI Dec.19'05,p1). Cooperation between US and global airline lobbying groups will be stepped up another notch with the decision taken at the recent IATA Aviation Fuel Forum (AFF) earlier this month in Singapore to expand and enhance the global reach of a data portal that the US-based Air Transport Association has set up to provide real-time information on fuel supply issues at airports around the
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