Holiday makers face possible flight cancellations from the end of May if the current squeeze on jet fuel supplies continues, according to Willie Walsh, the Irishman who leads air travel’s main industry body.
The International Energy Agency (IEA) estimates that Europe has around six weeks of jet fuel left as a result of the conflict in the Middle East and the continued blockade of shipping in the Strait of Hormuz.
European travellers could see “some cancellations for lack of jet fuel” by the end of May, International Air Travel Association chief executive, Walsh, warned on Friday.
“The IEA’s assessment of potential jet fuel shortages is sobering,” he added.
He noted that Asian airlines were already cancelling flights.
“Along with doing everything possible to secure alternative supply lines, it’s important that authorities have well-communicated and well-co-ordinated plans in place in case rationing becomes necessary,” he stressed.
Walsh said this should include “slot relief”, an arrangement whereby airlines prevented from using take-off and landing slots at airports should the fuel shortage force them to cancel flights do not lose the right to use them.
IEA chief executive Fatih Birol confirmed that Asian carriers were on the front line, but warned that Europe and the Americas would begin to suffer if the conflict continued to limit supplies.
Much of the oil and gas that moves through the Strait of Hormuz goes to Asia.
Refiners there are paying up to $170 a barrel for deliveries of crude oil even as prices in the wider market dropped below $100, according to some reports.