{"id":381821,"date":"2026-04-04T15:30:14","date_gmt":"2026-04-04T15:30:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/381821\/"},"modified":"2026-04-04T15:30:14","modified_gmt":"2026-04-04T15:30:14","slug":"end-of-the-budget-holiday-to-spain-and-portugal-as-jet-fuel-hits-record-high","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/381821\/","title":{"rendered":"End of the budget holiday to Spain and Portugal as jet fuel hits record high"},"content":{"rendered":"

Summer flights to European holiday destinations like Spain, Italy or Portugal are at risk of cancellation or price hikes due to soaring jet fuel costs and dwindling supplies due to the Gulf war.<\/a><\/p>\n

The price of north-west European jet fuel hit a record high on Thursday<\/a> at $1,900 a tonne, according to price reporting agency Argus Media<\/a>, as the first flights in the UK were axed as a result of the Iran conflict.<\/p>\n

Announcing cancellations to and from London City, Guernsey airline Aurigny said it was also adding a temporary fuel adjustment surcharge of \u00a32 per sector on all bookings made from 20 March onwards.<\/p>\n

New FeatureIn ShortQuick Stories. Same trusted journalism.<\/p>\n

But experts warned passengers on larger carriers heading abroad could face similar hikes as a result of the jet fuel crisis upending global airline travel.<\/p>\n

Ryanair boss Michael O\u2019Leary warned up to 10 per cent of the airline\u2019s flights in May, June and July could be axed if the Iran war doesn\u2019t stop by the end of April.<\/p>\n

Carriers wouldn\u2019t have the flexibility to choose which routes to cut, said O\u2019Leary, with cancellations depending on which airports suffer fuel shortages.<\/p>\n

But with the airline\u2019s most popular destinations from the UK including Barcelona, Lisbon and Rome, it raises the prospect of British tourists seeing bookings to holiday hotspots axed at short notice.<\/p>\n

Energy analysts Argus Media have also warned if the Gulf supply can\u2019t be replaced, and the impact spreads proportionally across importers, the UK could exhaust its jet fuel stocks in three months.<\/p>\n

Summer holidays might be in trouble<\/p>\n

James Noel-Beswick, head of commodities at the market intelligence firm Sparta Commodities, told The i Paper an \u201cimpending crisis\u201d was looming for European jet fuel supplies, with an escalation in ticket prices likely.<\/p>\n

He warned that surging prices were likely in \u201cweeks rather than months\u201d \u2013 and that if demand for fuel remains high some flights could be cancelled, with the summer holidays \u201ca real problem\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe saw that the last Middle Eastern jet cargo is arriving this week into Europe. I\u2019m just not really sure where Europe gets jet supply from now,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wouldn\u2019t be surprised if we start seeing maybe emergency fuel surpluses added to already booked tickets.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"ARyanair\u2019s Michael O\u2019Leary has warned the carrier may have to cancel 10 per cent of its flights due to the jet fuel crisis sparked by the war in Iran (Photo: Will Meakin-Durrant\/PA Wire)<\/p>\n

Barclays European transportation analyst, Andrew Loddenberg said fuel shortages are currently more prevalent in Asia than Europe, leading to some service cuts already, such as at Air New Zealand. <\/p>\n

But he added: \u201cIf fuel shortages become more acute globally, and spread potentially to Europe, there will be some flight cancellations and fares for available seats will rise.\u201d<\/p>\n

In 2025, the UK imported 89 per cent of its jet fuel, with 60 per cent of imports arriving from the Middle East, but the effective closure of the Straits of Hormuz, where about 20 per cent of the world\u2019s oil passes through, has halted tanker supplies.<\/p>\n

Things are going to get pretty bad pretty soon<\/p>\n

Prior to the Gulf energy crisis sparked by US and Israeli strikes on Iran, Britain had one of the lowest levels of jet fuel supplies of any developed economy, with domestic production plummeting since the late 1990s as refineries like Coryton and Grangemouth closed.<\/p>\n

The Government insists there is no\u202fcurrent\u202fdisruption to \u202fthe supply of\u202f jet fuel and points to the UK still receiving imports from India, USA and the Netherlands.<\/p>\n

\"FILECargo ships near the Strait of Hormuz, which has been effectively blockaded by Iranian forces (Photo: Stringer\/File\/Reuters)<\/p>\n

But with countries scram\u00adbling to find altern\u00adat\u00adive sellers as the crisis deepens, Britain, as Europe\u2019s largest importer of jet fuel, is most exposed, pointing to \u201can issue for Heathrow\u201d, said Noel-Beswick.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019ll be having their own issues in the US West Coast for jet supply, because they can\u2019t get it from Asia anymore,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe just haven\u2019t got a lot of stock around in Europe to compensate for this. <\/p>\n

\u201cIf you look at the biggest net differences in Europe between its own refinery supply and demand, the UK is really a bit of an outlier. I think things are going to get pretty bad pretty soon.\u201d<\/p>\n

As well as the UK, Germany, France, Italy, Switzerland and Ireland all have \u201cpretty serious issues\u201d coming up in May, Noel-Beswick added, with EasyJet, British Airways and Ryanair in particular heavily dependent on jet fuel imports.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe key point is that none of these carriers can easily escape import-linked pricing when the countries they operate from are this structurally short on domestic jet fuel supply,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

And if jet supplies from the Gulf continue to be blocked it raises the prospect of suppliers having to issue force majeures if contracts can\u2019t be fulfilled.<\/p>\n

Facing an unknown scenario<\/p>\n

Ryanair, EasyJet and Wizzair insist they are well hedged against skyrocketing fuel price changes after buying aviation fuel\u202fin advance.<\/p>\n

But this week, Ryanair chief executive O\u2019Leary said: \u201cThe Strait of Hormuz has been closed for 30 days. If it remains closed for 60 or 90 days, then we\u2019re all facing an unknown scenario, and we are certainly looking at maybe having to cancel 5-10 per cent of flights through May, June and July.\u201d<\/p>\n

O\u2019Leary told ITV News he only expects a few days\u2019 notice from suppliers, making disruption a challenge to handle. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe have aircraft that are based at 95 airports across Europe, and we\u2019ll have to cancel routes at whichever airport the fuel companies advise us we\u2019re short jet A-1 at, say, Malaga airport, or we\u2019re short of jet A-1 at Athens airport,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

EasyJet chief executive Kenton Jarvis has previously warned European consumers should expect higher ticket prices towards the end of summer, when existing fuel hedges come to an end.<\/p>\n

Rachel Mumford, UK Travel Expert at KAYAK, says while UK travellers were not seeing consistent flight price increases across the board, with overall European fares slightly lower compared to last year, there were signs of rises on some routes.<\/p>\n

In the first three weeks of March, average return flights to the Maldives had soared by 32 per cent, year on year, to \u00a31,218 while bookings to New Zealand climbed 20 per cent to \u00a31,651.<\/p>\n

Julia Lo Bue-Said, chief executive of Advantage Travel Partnership, which represents UK travel agencies, said they were seeing demand for bookings to western Mediterranean destinations and the Caribbean.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s really seen an increase, and therefore the pricing becomes under pressure,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd I think as we get into post-Easter, into summer months, we\u2019ll start to see that play out more inevitably.\u201d<\/p>\n

While there was a slight uptick in enquiries for UK staycations, there was no sign of a definite trend, she said, but advised holidaymakers planning summer trips abroad to \u201ctie in as quickly as you can\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne, because availability will be under pressure. And secondly what we don\u2019t know is how fuel is going to impact any pricing moving forward,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Summer flights to European holiday destinations like Spain, Italy or Portugal are at risk of cancellation or price…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":381822,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[43982,20204,57092,72,113,108797,61,11829,60,20673],"class_list":{"0":"post-381821","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-economy","8":"tag-air-travel","9":"tag-airlines","10":"tag-brexit","11":"tag-business","12":"tag-economy","13":"tag-europe-travel","14":"tag-ie","15":"tag-iran","16":"tag-ireland","17":"tag-oil-prices"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/381821","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=381821"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/381821\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/381822"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=381821"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=381821"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=381821"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}