Mangaluru International Airport commissions ‘Open Access’ Fuel Farm and aircraft fuelling facility

MIA commissions open access fuel farm & aircraft fuelling facility with 970 KL storage capacity, providing airlines a level-playing field to select OMC.

Mangaluru International Airport (MIA) on December 16 commissioned the ‘Open Access’ Fuel Farm and aircraft fuelling facility at the airport.

The facility comprises new greenfield fuel storage created by the airport, as well as the existing brownfield asset of an oil marketing company (OMC) at the airport that MIA took over. The Fuel Farm facility is spread across 5262.57 sq.m adjacent to the old terminal building at Bajpe with a storage capacity of 970 KL in six fuel storage tanks, said a release in Mangaluru on December 17.

Bowsers of the airport Fuel Farm refuelled the first flight under Open Access system — an IndiGo flight 6e554 that arrived from Mumbai in the early hours of December 17. Pankaj Agrawal, Business Head (Fuel Farm), Adani Airport Holdings Ltd. and Srikanth Tata, Head (Operations), MIA handed over a memento to flight captain Yateen Anant Pandit and to the ground handling and engineering staff of the airline to mark the occasion.

The airport spokesperson said, “Open access is a unique fuelling system at airports that provides a level-playing field to oil marketing companies. It leads to overall optimisation in jet fuel handling supply chain, removes entry barrier for a new oil marketer and thus widens the choice for the airline to select the OMC of their choice for refuelling. Overall open access system creates value for each stakeholder. Open access system is prevalent at all major airports in the country.”

He further said the airport is committed to providing quality fuel to the airlines operating from this facility and has put in place all arrangements. Earlier, P. Sasikumaran Nair, Airport Terminal Manager of the OMC, handed over the symbolic key of the facility to Mr. Agrawal and Mr. Tata.