Switzerland has opened its compulsory jet fuel stocks to keep Swiss and the other airlines at Zurich supplied. From Thursday 15 October until 1 November 2026, up to 30,000 cubic metres of aviation fuel may be drawn from the reserves, the Federal Office for National Economic Supply (FONES) said. That is 6.5% of the compulsory jet fuel stock currently held in the country12. The release was approved by Roland Pfister, the federal delegate for national economic supply13.

Why Zurich is short

The problem is getting the fuel to the airport. According to FONES, cancellations and long delays in international rail freight, especially on the feeder lines from Germany, are disrupting deliveries to Zurich. Low water on the Rhine has made things worse: barges can only sail part loaded or not at all, so other freight has already moved onto a congested rail network and missed fuel deliveries cannot be made up in time12. "Without additional measures, the stocks available at Zurich Airport are not sufficient to bridge the missed deliveries," the office said13.

The Swiss paper 20 Minuten puts the airport's daily use at about 4,000 cubic metres3. On that figure the release covers a little over a week of normal consumption, spread over a period of just over two weeks. A FONES spokeswoman told the paper that the release had prevented a supply shortfall3. Supplies of petrol, diesel and heating oil have also worsened since the previous week, the government said, but national coverage remains assured14.

It is the latest in a run of supply problems. In early September, Switzerland's only oil refinery, at Cressier in the canton of Neuchâtel, stopped production to repair a technical fault5, and withdrawals from the compulsory oil stocks were allowed for the duration of the outage6. FONES said on 21 September that the refinery had restarted after about two weeks but that the supply situation remained tight7.

How the Swiss reserve works

As a landlocked country that imports its fuel, Switzerland requires companies to hold compulsory stocks of goods the government deems essential. The state decides which goods and how much; the stocks belong to the companies that hold them4. For jet fuel the target is three months, or 90 days, of average sales at Swiss airports. In April, a FONES spokesman told the Keystone-SDA news agency that actual cover stood at 72 days, because demand had grown strongly since the pandemic and stocks were catching up with a delay8.

At the airport, fuel arrives by rail at the hydrant system run by Flughafen Zürich AG, which manages the fuel and maintains the pipes. The fuel itself is supplied by nine energy companies, including BP, Shell and Socar, which have their own contracts with the airlines, airport spokesman Dario Geiser told 20 Minuten3.

What it means on the flight deck

For now, crews should see little change. "There are currently no restrictions on refuelling aircraft," Geiser said3. A Swiss spokeswoman told the AWP news agency that the airline had felt no effect on refuelling its aircraft and that there were no restrictions at Zurich, or at Geneva9. No cancellations or delays linked to the shortage have been reported.

Frankfurt shows what happens when supply does tighten. Lufthansa said lower supplies at its main hub were due to reduced pipeline capacity, with operator Fraport confirming that one pipeline is undergoing maintenance10. The German paper Bild reported that Lufthansa had told crews on selected routes to tanker fuel into Frankfurt, with the extra fuel capped at eight tonnes on A320 family aircraft so that they can still be towed on the ground11. Lufthansa called it a precautionary measure and said it did not expect cancellations; Fraport said its pipeline and storage capacity is designed to cover around ten days of demand10.

Tankering means carrying more fuel than the flight needs so that less, or none, has to be uplifted at the destination. Fuel shortages and technical failures at refuelling facilities are among the standard operational reasons for it. The cost is paid in the air: the extra mass burns extra fuel, and a heavier aircraft may have to fly lower, which affects flight time, routing and weather avoidance12. In the EU, tankering is also limited by law. Under the ReFuelEU Aviation regulation, the yearly quantity of fuel an operator uplifts at a given Union airport must be at least 90% of the fuel it needs there, although an operator may fall below that threshold where fuel safety rules require it13. Whether airlines are tankering into Zurich has not been disclosed.