Nantucket Airport Sees Uptick In Flights And Fuel Sales Over Fourth Of July Weekend

Over 169,000 gallons of jet fuel were pumped at Nantucket Memorial Airport over the Fourth of July holiday weekend, and over 2,400 aircraft operations took place from July 1^st to July 6^th as tourists flocked to the island to celebrate America’s 250^th birthday. Both totals reflected increases over the same period in 2025. 

“Total Jet A fuel pumped for this 4^th was 169,621 gallons, which is up 16 percent from last year,” acting airport manager Preston Harimon told the Current. “Total aircraft operations from July 1^st to the 6^th is 2,421, which is up 8.9 percent from last year. The busiest day was the 5^th with a total of 567 operations. Approximately 8,294 screened passengers went through TSA, which was up four percent (from 2025)."

The airport has been plagued by fuel shortages in past years due to the high demand of larger private jets. It rented four 7,000-gallon refueling trucks this summer as storage units to avoid jet fuel rationing, which gives the airport roughly 128,000 gallons of fuel storage when combined with its fuel farm. There were no restrictions announced over the weekend.

On Monday, as visitors departed after the holiday, images circulated of massive lines of tourists stretching out the airport screening area past the front of the terminal building. Harimon said large lines also existed on Tuesday, and in both instances were caused by several flights attempting to depart at the same time.

“The airline schedule was bottlenecked,” Harimon said. “Basically, when you add three JetBlue aircraft plus American, United, and Delta, we had approximately 632 passengers trying to depart (Nantucket) within an hour and a half. Our hold room capacity is 313. Needless to say, this is going to trigger a meeting with airlines to review schedules as we move through the remaining summer months.”

Harimon said he believes there was a flight delay with a JetBlue flight attempting to leave Nantucket for Boston, and it led to passengers for two JetBlue flights attempting to go through TSA screening at once.

“So from what I understand, at least for JetBlue, they had a delay that was going into Boston,” Harimon said. “Normally they don't board until 40 minutes prior and advise passengers not to go through TSA until announced over the PA. But in this case where the line was out the door because of the delayed flight, they had to announce both flights to proceed through TSA which created the bottleneck. We also have airport staff directing and guiding the TSA line the best that we can, answering questions and coordinating with TSA agents in airline personnel to try to make a hectic TSA line go as smooth as possible.”

Harimon is currently serving as the island’s airport manager without an assistant airport manager by his side after being promoted from the assistant role last month following the Airport Commission’s announcement that Warren Smith was no longer employed by the airport and terminated as airport manager without cause as of June 24^th. Harimon said that while no records were set last weekend, it was a busy holiday for the Nantucket Airport.

“Nothing staggering,” Harimon said. “But slightly up compared to last year.”