{"id":543511,"date":"2026-04-21T21:21:14","date_gmt":"2026-04-21T21:21:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/543511\/"},"modified":"2026-04-21T21:21:14","modified_gmt":"2026-04-21T21:21:14","slug":"air-fares-soar-by-nearly-25-as-iran-war-forces-flights-to-re-route","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/543511\/","title":{"rendered":"Air fares soar by nearly 25% as Iran war forces flights to re-route"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Meanwhile, airlines operating out of the UK have warned that if the conflict in the Middle East continues or worsens, it will force them to cut flights and push up fares.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">They have called on the government to take a number of steps to protect them from the effects of the disruption caused by the closure of the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/articles\/c3w39lg84w2o\" class=\"ssrcss-1e0jzsh-InlineLink e1kn3p7n0\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Strait of Hormuz<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">This would include allowing delays and cancellations due to fuel shortages to be classified as &#8220;extraordinary circumstances&#8221;, allowing them to avoid paying out compensation, something that European airlines have also called for.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Sources have suggested to the BBC that this demand is not being seriously considered.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">They have asked for Air Passenger Duty \u2013 a tax on passengers \u2013 to be cut or suspended, as well as for a major emissions trading scheme to be temporarily stood down.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">The demands are contained in a confidential briefing document sent to ministers and the Civil Aviation Authority by Airlines UK, a body which represents a large number of carriers, including EasyJet, Ryanair, British Airways and Virgin Atlantic.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">The document \u2013 first reported on by ITV News \u2013 also calls for restrictions on night flights to be eased and rules on the allocation of take-off and landing slots at busy airports to be relaxed. This would prevent airlines losing valuable slots if they were unable to operate services.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">The government, it says, should establish &#8220;targeted refinery obligations&#8221;, which would if necessary force oil refineries to prioritise the production of jet fuel over other products, such as petrol or diesel.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">The Department of Transport said: &#8220;UK airlines are clear that they are currently not seeing a shortage of jet fuel.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;We continue to work with fuel suppliers, airlines and international counterparts on our contingency planning, to ensure people keep moving and businesses are supported while the conflict is ongoing.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;Our overriding priority is to de-escalate this conflict, open up the Strait and prevent disruption to passengers.&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Meanwhile, airlines operating out of the UK have warned that if the conflict in the Middle East continues&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":543512,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[84,59,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-543511","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-gb","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/543511","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=543511"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/543511\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/543512"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=543511"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=543511"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=543511"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}