Enemalta reassures on jet fuel, Air Malta keeping tabs on costs

Aviation physics is a frightening affair, but if you can stand some math, an Air Malta pilot will tell you why Enemalta's fuel seems to have become more expensive lately.

While a rebranding and redundancy scheme have raised hopes that the national airline will be back on the route to profitability, pilots who showed MaltaToday their fuel chits this week seem convinced that fuel supplied by Enemalta is inflating costs.

Last week they said that the national energy corporation is supplying fuel - which it does in litres - at a lower 'specific gravity' (in simple terms, the conversion rate that allows Air Malta to order fuel in kilograms).

It's a simple ratio: at a standard specific gravity of 0.78kg/l, 10,000 litres of fuel from Enemalta should translate into 12,820 kilograms for Air Malta's fuel tanks.

Except, the pilots told this newspaper, Enemalta has supplied the fuel at an unprecedented 0.75, a small enough difference that Air Malta would have to order more fuel if an airliner needed the usual 10,000 litres (13,300 kilograms, to be exact).

This week, the energy corporation refuted the allegation (see LETTERS). It said that its fuel is purchased according to the 'AFQRJOS' checklist, the most widely used specification in the world, and that at a temperature of 15ºC the density of its fuel ranges between 0.775 and 0.84kg/l.

"Fuel purchases by Enemalta always meet the most recent edition of this specification. It is a fact that different batches purchased have different densities, but always within the specified range. The most recent batch purchased had a density of 0.779kg/l, which is within the correct specifications of the fuel," a spokesperson said.

On the other hand, Air Malta has confirmed that recent fuel supplies have been "at the lower end of the acceptable specific gravity range", but that the fuel supplied still meets the standards required.

Keep in mind that Enemalta's quoted specific gravity is at a temperature of 15ºC (that's how it appears on their fiscal invoice). As the laws of physics have it, at higher temperatures the density of fuel lowers. Which is why the corporation claims that the lower specific gravity of 0.75kg/l being reported by Air Malta pilots is only down to higher temperatures in summer. "As temperature increases, density decreases. This is an occurrence which happens throughout the year and surely Air Malta pilots are more than aware of such a phenomenon," the spokesperson said.

But data seen by MaltaToday appear to contradict this claim: two fuel chits issued from an airliner show that at an ambient temperature of 29ºC, the density of the fuel was still clocking 0.79kg/l, tallying with the density quoted on a foreign fuel supplier's fiscal invoice.

While the pilots insist that these aberrations are suspicious, Air Malta's chief of flight operations, Captain Mark Micallef Eynaud, says that the airline will raise these concerns with Enemalta if recent supplies contribute to higher operating costs.

"The aviation fuel supplied by Enemalta satisfies the criteria set by international standards... It is correct that the current fuel supplied by Enemalta is at the lower end of the acceptable specific gravity range, but it is important to note that the fuel meets the standards required nonetheless. Irrespective, Air Malta has routine procedures in place to monitor the specific gravity and fuel uplift for all flights and from all suppliers."

Micallef Eynaud also says that, contrary to some pilots' claims, there are no passenger concerns at stake. "The fuel supplied is safe to use, and concerns expressed in the article about passenger safety are unfounded. Air Malta puts safety first and would never accept a substandard product that failed to meet the required international standards.

"Air Malta refutes the concerns raised about passenger safety. Furthermore, Air Malta categorically denies that it has asked, or asks, its employees to ever turn a blind eye to any issue, let alone one that impacts safety."