Chopin Airport commences the construction of a railway fuel terminal. The investment will enable the change of the method of delivering aviation fuel to the airport and fully opening the market for all the suppliers.
At the airports in Poland (both civilian and military) nearly 620 thousand tons of kerosene Jet A-1 are sold annually. Almost half of this amount is consumed at Chopin Airport.
At Warsaw airport four providers operate: Petrolot (a subsidiary of PKN Orlen), Shell Aviation, a Lotus Air BP consortium and a Lithuanian company Baltic Ground Services. Only Petrolot has a warehouse base at the airport, to which the fuel is supplied by rail. Other suppliers use the Petrolot infrastructure or deliver their fuel to the airport with their own tank trucks.
Soon the system will change completely. “Polish Airports” (management company of the Chopin Airport) has leased from PKP some land on which the railway fuel terminal and special unloading installation will be built. At this point the fuel will be pumped out from the tank carriages into existing Petrolot warehouses through an over 1.5 km long underground pipeline. KB Pomerania, a company chosen in a tender, is just starting the construction of a nearly 38 million zł worth site.
– Installations will be fully operational in the second half of 2016, after the end of the launching period. Then the new model of fuel supply will be in force – says Michal Nowotny, Chief Financial Officer of “Polish Airports”. – Centralised infrastructure will improve the fuel supply in terms of logistics, as well as allow the opening of the market for all the interested suppliers on an equal rights – he added.
All the suppliers will have access to the new infrastructure at a flat rate price. Companies will compete among themselves by providing the lowest price and the best quality of service and therefore will acquire airline customers.
– We hope that the opening of the market will increase competition and ultimately lower the prices of fuel sold at Chopin Airport. In the long run, this may also mean lower prices of air tickets from Warsaw – says Michael Nowotny.
Currently a ton of kerosene costs about $ 475. For comparison: in 2008, when a barrel of oil cost $ 140, a ton of aviation fuel was over $ 1,500.
Source / Author: Chopin Airport
Photo: Chopin Airport