A year ago, the airlines were being ravaged by the coronavirus pandemic with too many planes and too many flights but not nearly enough passengers who were skittish about flying.
Now customers are beginning to return to the air in droves but the aviation industry is facing another big stumbling block - not enough fuel.
The computer hacking of the 5,500-mile Colonial Pipeline has forced a brief shutdown of the critical supply chain that provides 45 percent of all fuel to the heavily populated east coast, forcing airlines to quite literally make changes on the fly, according to CNN.
The pipeline also delivers jet fuel directly to airports in Atlanta, Charlotte, Baltimore, Nashville and Washington, DC, as well as linking with other pipelines that bring fuel to airports in New York and elsewhere in the northeast.
American Airlines, for instance, is adding stops on two long-range flights out of one of its hubs in Charlotte, North Carolina, thus adding a stop to what were previously nonstop flights.
One route is a Charlotte to Honolulu flight that will now stop in Dallas, where passengers will be switching planes, according to CNN.
The other flight is Charlotte to London, which will now become Charlotte to Boston to London after the plane stops in Beantown for additional fuel.
"We are closely monitoring the situation and working around the clock to ensure that we have an adequate supply of fuel across our network," American told CNN in a statement.
In addition, there is also a shortage of tanker truck drivers to deliver fuel, compounding the problem.
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