FEARS are mounting that thousands of Easter and summer holidays could be culled as airlines begin cancelling flights amid the soaring cost of jet fuel.
According to aviation analytics company Cirium, more than one in 20 flights scheduled to take off on Monday was cancelled – almost twice the percentage recorded this time last year.
The sudden uptick in cancellations comes as the ongoing conflict in the Middle East continues to strangle the global supply of jet fuel and send prices skyrocketing.
Jet fuel now sets buyers back around $1,710 (€1,490) per metric tonne, a 130 per cent increase on its cost just 12 months ago.
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The increase is linked to a spike in oil prices with Brent crude, the global benchmark for oil, hitting a high of $116 (€101) per barrel during market trading on Monday morning.
The surge comes as Iran continues to effectively shut down the Strait of Hormuz, a vital maritime shipping route through which around 20 per cent of the world’s oil and liquified natural gas passes and around 40 per cent of Europe’s jet fuel supplies.
Shipping traffic exiting the Persian Gulf through the strait has been halted and tankers are stranded amid the risk that vessels could be attacked.
Key oil producers in the region, including Kuwait, Bahrain and the UAE, have also cut down on production after Iranian drone strikes damaged several oil refineries across the Middle East.
The shortage has led economists to liken the ongoing situation to the 1970s energy shock, with the war in Iran continuing to drive the price of oil to eye-watering highs.
Writing on X, aviation analyst Alex Macheras warned that ‘a serious jet fuel shortage is less than a week away across multiple different markets’ – including ‘at some major European airport hubs’.
He said some airports were ‘informing airlines to prepare for a potential no-fuel available here scenario’.
“This is not [just] a Europe problem – international airlines from Asia, South America, Africa…are working on contingency plans, which include attempted fuel stops en route to / from destinations as jet fuel shortage worsens to unprecedented levels [and] the price continues to surge,” he added.
According to the Financial Times, the last known shipment of jet fuel to the UK from the Middle East is expected to arrive this week.
The UK has sourced at least half of jet fuel from the Middle East in recent months after turning away from Russian supplies following the war in Ukraine.
Some airlines have already begun cutting down on flight routes, including Air New Zealand, which is cancelling 1,100 flights through to early May, and Scandinavian group SAS, which is cancelling more than a thousand planned flights next month.
Major US carrier United Airlines has also cut down around 5% of its capacity on routes it deems as less profitable.
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