A total of 20,000 short-haul flights, including the Frankfurt to Cork route, were dropped by the German airline as it bids to reduce its consumption. Lufthansa was explicit that this was being done in response to rising fuel costs, as opposed to an immediate shortage of fuel.<\/p>\n
Aer Lingus<\/a>, on the other hand, announced a 2 per cent reduction in its summer schedule due to what it called \u201cmandatory maintenance on aircraft\u201d. Up to 23,000 passengers travelling on 430 flights could be disrupted as a result.<\/p>\n The decision was greeted with surprise by some travel industry observers \u2013 who questioned why this sort of maintenance couldn\u2019t be organised in such a way that wouldn\u2019t affect the company\u2019s busiest and most lucrative trading period.<\/p>\n Irish aviation entrepreneur Ulick McEvaddy<\/a> has spent the past few days attending a conference on air refuelling in the United States. <\/p>\n [\u00a0Will Ryanair have to follow Aer Lingus and cut flights?Opens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n \u201cNobody seems to have any solution to it,\u201d he says. <\/p>\n McEvaddy has a bleak outlook on the rest of the year; he believes a significant number of flights are going to be grounded.<\/p>\n \u201cA friend of mine is over here from Amsterdam and they just cancelled the flight on him,\u201d he says. <\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s going to be a very tough time with the wholesale cancellations of flights.\u201d<\/p>\n He agrees the shock to the industry will probably be greater than that caused by the 1970s energy crisis.<\/p>\n \u201cWe don\u2019t have any alternatives to the Strait of Hormuz. And if the Houthis shut down the Red Sea, which they probably will, we\u2019re screwed,\u201d he says, referring to the Iran-backed group in Yemen at the southern end of that sea, another key Middle Eastern shipping route.<\/p>\n \u201cCan we get fuel in from the US? Yes, probably, but that will take some time and it is going to be costly as well. It\u2019s a pretty substantial disaster.\u201d<\/p>\n The entrepreneur believes the cost to Ryanair<\/a> and Aer Lingus could be large \u201cI think they\u2019ll be hurt,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n McEvaddy compares the potential impact of a prolonged closure of Hormuz to that of the Covid pandemic, which halted international travel.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019ll take months for this to return to normal. Even from today it would take two months. And that\u2019s just a six-week shutdown,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is going to go on for months, by the look of it.\u201d<\/p>\n As McEvaddy was reporting the cancellation of his friend\u2019s return flight to Amsterdam, Dutch airline KLM was telling the media in Europe that it had grounded 150 flights due to rising costs.<\/p>\n It said it would not be operating 80 return flights out of Schiphol airport over the coming month as they were \u201cno longer financially viable\u201d. The airline said the cancelled flights over May represented under 1 per cent of its total.<\/p>\n As for Schiphol, Europe\u2019s fourth-busiest hub, it said it would be offering a year-long, 10 per cent discount to carriers due to the spike in jet fuel prices.<\/p>\n
![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/ZVSC7XPA25H5TQEGLP3MVD767A.jpg\")
A billboard depicting an arm with an Iranian flag on the sleeve squeezing the Strait of Hormuz in Tehran, Iran. Photograph: Arash Khamooshi\/The New York Times <\/p>\n