{"id":361294,"date":"2026-03-23T18:44:08","date_gmt":"2026-03-23T18:44:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/361294\/"},"modified":"2026-03-23T18:44:08","modified_gmt":"2026-03-23T18:44:08","slug":"easyjet-bookings-fall-because-of-iran-war-as-boss-warns-of-air-fare-rises-easyjet","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/361294\/","title":{"rendered":"EasyJet bookings fall because of Iran war as boss warns of air fare rises | easyJet"},"content":{"rendered":"

The boss of easyJet has said the war in the Middle East<\/a> has started to hit flight bookings, while the soaring price of oil would probably mean a rise in air fares by the end of the summer.<\/p>\n

The chief executive, Kenton Jarvis, said that while the airline had hedged much of its fuel into next year, avoiding soaring kerosene prices<\/a>, it was \u201cunavoidable\u201d that some of the costs would be passed on in fares.<\/p>\n

He said forward bookings for summer had started to slow. With their proximity to the conflict, flights to Turkey, Cyprus and Egypt had been hit by the biggest drop in bookings, Jarvis said, and passengers had instead turned to the \u201cusual suspects\u201d of Spain, Greece and Portugal, which were \u201cholding up pretty firmly\u201d.<\/p>\n

He said: \u201cWe have seen a drop in bookings. If it\u2019s the same as the Ukraine crisis or after the Hamas attacks on Israel, that tends to lasts about six weeks, until, terrible though it is, the news is off the front pages.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tui, Europe\u2019s biggest holiday operator, said earlier this month that demand had risen<\/a> for holidays in Spain, Portugal, Greece and Cape Verde this summer as customers opted for \u201cfamiliar, easy\u2011to\u2011reach locations\u201d.<\/p>\n

EasyJet\u2019s hedges meant it was paying $700 (\u00a3520) a tonne for jet fuel but current spot prices had reached $1,850, Jarvis said, and it was likely that fares would rise by the end of peak season.<\/p>\n

\u201cLuckily most European airlines are extremely well hedged,\u201d he said. \u201cYou can still get a price of $1,000 in six months \u2013 the view of the markets is that fuel comes down in price. But the reality is that prices will start feeding in to the consumer over the back end of summer.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jarvis was speaking at Newcastle airport, where easyJet has reopened a base, with three stationed aircraft, that it closed down in 2020 when Covid struck<\/a>. He said the base would bring 140 jobs for pilots, cabin crew and engineers, and would support more than 1,000 new jobs in the wider north-east, as well as flying up to 800,000 holidaymakers out of Newcastle this summer.<\/p>\n

The region\u2019s mayor, Kim McGuinness, said she hoped that the new flights would also lure more visitors into the area, too. She said the airport was \u201cnot just where holidays begin\u201d, adding: \u201cTourism is a key part of my growth plans for the region and why I\u2019m pleased to welcome easyJet\u2019s investment back into our region, and the strength in our region\u2019s tourism that it represents.\u201d<\/p>\n

The new routes are mainly to southern Europe and Mediterranean destinations but also Turkey and Egypt. Jarvis said the airline might look to reallocate capacity if the war continued.<\/p>\n

EasyJet will continue daily flights to Bristol but not operate to London. Campaigners have urged airlines to curb domestic flights where a train alternative exists. The chief commercial officer of easyJet, Sophie Dekkers, said: \u201cIf the train journey is two-and-a-half hours or less, we don\u2019t operate a flight.\u201d Newcastle to Bristol by train typically takes about five hours.<\/p>\n

The airline, however, said it expected to curb emissions with lighter seats. It has switched supplier for future Airbus plane deliveries to a British company, Norfolk-based Mirus Aircraft Seating, which manufactures products that weigh about 20% less than its current seats.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The boss of easyJet has said the war in the Middle East has started to hit flight bookings,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":361295,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[72,61,60],"class_list":{"0":"post-361294","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-ie","10":"tag-ireland"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/361294","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=361294"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/361294\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/361295"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=361294"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=361294"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=361294"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}