{"id":714237,"date":"2026-06-04T09:40:09","date_gmt":"2026-06-04T09:40:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/714237\/"},"modified":"2026-06-04T09:40:09","modified_gmt":"2026-06-04T09:40:09","slug":"airlines-say-threat-of-jet-fuel-shortage-is-fading-as-summer-travel-takes-off","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/714237\/","title":{"rendered":"Airlines say threat of jet fuel shortage is fading as summer travel takes off"},"content":{"rendered":"

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

Air Canada says capacity is up nearly three per cent for transoceanic flights, compared with last summer.Chris Helgren\/Reuters<\/p>\n

Three months after the Iran war<\/a> first sparked fears of widespread flight disruptions driven by fuel shortages, airlines are now assuring customers that fuel supply is stable. <\/p>\n

\u201cThere is no fuel shortage affecting our operations, including across Europe,\u201d Air Canada said in an e-mail notice<\/a> to customers on Tuesday. \u201cWe do not anticipate any significant impact through the summer.\u201d<\/p>\n

The message echoed an online statement made last week by Lufthansa Group\u2019s chief commercial officer, Dieter Vranckx. \u201cFuel supply is stable so summer\u2019s good to go,\u201d he said. \u201cThere are no signs from our suppliers that fuel supply will be at risk this summer.\u201d<\/p>\n

Back in April, the International Energy Agency<\/a> said Europe had about six weeks of jet-fuel supply left. But predictions of mass cancellations and plummeting airline capacity largely haven\u2019t materialized.<\/p>\n

According to data from aviation analytics firm Cirium, the supply of seats on summer flights travelling between Canada and major European hot spots (including Britain, France, Germany and Spain), as well as to and from booming Asian tourism hubs such as Japan, remained virtually unchanged in late May when compared with the month preceding the Iran war. <\/p>\n

Opinion: How much worse could air travel actually get?<\/a><\/p>\n

Airline capacity for some destinations, such as Rome and Porto, even saw significant spikes of around 3 and 13 per cent, respectively. In a statement to The Globe and Mail, Air Canada said capacity is up nearly 3 per cent for transoceanic flights, compared with last summer.<\/p>\n

\u201cAny reductions in the supply of seats is minimal, even with the increased cost of fuel,\u201d said Mike Arnot, spokesperson for Cirium. Bookings from Europe to Canada and vice versa have held flat compared with last summer, \u201cdespite the geopolitical climate, inflation and that the euro has gained marginally on the Canadian dollar,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

This contrasts with bookings from Europe to the U.S., for example, which are down 7 per cent.<\/p>\n

Some airlines have cut more transatlantic flights than others, however. WestJet lost about 1.2 per cent of its seats to Europe for summer 2026 since the start of the war, according to Cirium data. Though small, it was the largest change among major Canadian carriers flying to the region.<\/p>\n

WestJet did not respond to a request for comment or confirm whether reduced capacity was because of fuel shortages. <\/p>\n

Lufthansa\u2019s Mr. Vranckx said in last week\u2019s statement that fuel imports from North America and Africa, along with increased jet-fuel production at European refineries, helped to mitigate some of the strain on fuel supply out of the Middle East.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s what to do if your flight is cancelled because of a jet-fuel shortage<\/a><\/p>\n

Such workarounds have helped offset the blows dealt by U.S. and Israel\u2019s war on Iran. The war put a chokehold on a critical passageway<\/a> for 20 per cent of the world\u2019s oil and natural gas trade and 75 per cent of Europe\u2019s imported jet-fuel supply. But some say these are stopgap solutions to save the crucial summer travel season for airlines, and will come at a steep cost down the line.<\/p>\n

\u201cAirlines have learned the fuel is still available from other sources, but expensive and harder to find,\u201d said Mehrdad Pirnia, associate professor in management science and engineering at the University of Waterloo. This has created a \u201cslow-motion supply crunch\u201d rather than an abrupt shortage.<\/p>\n

Sourcing jet fuel from other locations demands more complex supply routes and higher transport costs, Mr. Pirnia said, adding that it would ultimately trickle into higher airfare costs. In the months since the start of the war, airfares to travel hot spots such as Lisbon and London have risen year-over-year as much as 16 and 18 per cent,<\/a> respectively, according to data from Kayak, an airfare comparison tool.<\/p>\n

There are also indirect consequences from these workarounds. \u201cRefineries are pushed to max out their jet-fuel output by diverting output from diesel or gasoline, hence the higher gas prices,\u201d Mr. Pirnia said.<\/p>\n

In addition, many routes had already been cut before the summer. Lufthansa, for its part, already permanently closed its German regional subsidiary, CityLine, in April, cancelling 20,000 flights as the Iran war doubled jet-fuel prices. <\/p>\n

Seat capacity also isn\u2019t always a reliable indicator of whether airlines have cut flights. Some companies may be cutting routes made unprofitable by fuel costs while offering the same number of flights overall<\/a>, or offering more flights, but with fuller planes. <\/p>\n

Still, travellers can find some comfort in the expectation that further summer cancellations related to fuel shortages are unlikely. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe widespread travel disruption some were concerned about earlier this spring has largely not materialized,\u201d Flight Centre Travel Group Canada spokesperson Amra Durakovic said.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs for fuel specifically, that conversation has already shifted,\u201d she said. \u201cEarlier this spring, travellers were asking whether fuel issues could ground their trips. Today they\u2019re asking about price, value and flexibility.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Open this photo in gallery: Air Canada says capacity is up nearly three per cent for transoceanic flights,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":714238,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[45,49,48,2741],"class_list":["post-714237","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-business","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-pf-ca"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/714237","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=714237"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/714237\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/714238"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=714237"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=714237"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=714237"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}