Glasgow and Edinburgh airports were affected by a jet fuel supply issue over the weekend that led some flights to divert for refuelling, the UK Defence Journal understands.
The problem emerged on the evening of 31 May 2026, with both airports reporting that a supplier was working to resolve an issue affecting several airline customers. TUI services leaving Glasgow were routed through Prestwick to refuel, while some Edinburgh departures bound for Paris and Dubai stopped at Manchester to take on fuel.
Several airlines also loaded additional fuel at their outbound airports before positioning aircraft to Scotland for overnight stays. An overnight delivery was made, and affected airlines resumed departures from both airports the following morning.
A fuel delivery was made overnight, allowing affected airlines to resume departures from Glasgow and Edinburgh this morning.
To minimise disruption, several airlines had previously been double fuelling at destination airports prior to overnighting aircraft in Scotland.
Some… https://t.co/7ObJqA7IaB
— Aviation News UK (@AviationNews_UK) June 1, 2026
Neither Glasgow nor Edinburgh is connected to the Exolum pipeline, which supplies Heathrow, Gatwick, Stansted and Manchester, as well as a number of Royal Air Force stations. Jet fuel for the two Scottish airports is instead brought in by road.
Grangemouth, Scotland’s only oil refinery, stopped processing crude in April 2025 and is being converted by operator Petroineos into a terminal for imported finished fuels. The refinery had supplied a large share of Scotland’s petrol, diesel and aviation fuel, and the operator said the transition to an import terminal would safeguard fuel supply for Scotland.
The disruption came, as many readers will bve aware, during a period of strain on European jet fuel supplies. Aviation fuel prices rose above 200 dollars a barrel earlier in 2026 after the closure of the Strait of Hormuz cut off shipments from the Middle East, the source of close to 60 percent of European jet fuel imports in 2025. Analysts at Kpler estimated that the loss of cargoes through the strait reduced global seaborne jet fuel supply by around a fifth, leaving European buyers competing for alternative volumes from the United States and elsewhere.
Europe has long imported a substantial portion of the jet fuel it uses, with regional refinery output falling short of demand. European OECD countries consumed about 1.6 million barrels a day of jet fuel and kerosene in 2025, of which roughly 500,000 barrels a day was met through imports. A series of refinery closures over the past decade, with several sites shut permanently or converted to other uses, has reduced domestic production and increased that reliance on imported fuel.
The International Energy Agency had warned that European inventories could fall below its 23-day cover threshold during June, a level it uses to denote a tight supply position. A Goldman Sachs analysis published in May identified the United Kingdom as particularly exposed because of its high level of net jet fuel imports.
Surprising these airports are not linked, was about to ask before I read it in the article.
“Exolum pipeline.” Interesting, I still cannot use anything but the old term “GPSS.” Another defence asset thrown away by….., don’t recall if it was Labour or the Tories now, they’re all the same.
Links to lots of interesting places.