{"id":953081,"date":"2026-05-11T17:42:20","date_gmt":"2026-05-11T17:42:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/953081\/"},"modified":"2026-05-11T17:42:20","modified_gmt":"2026-05-11T17:42:20","slug":"jet-fuel-shortage-deepens-pressure-on-global-airlines","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/953081\/","title":{"rendered":"Jet Fuel Shortage Deepens Pressure on Global Airlines"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Fewer passengers were heading to Heathrow Airport in April as the war in the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cityam.com\/jet-fuel-shortage-worse-than-covid-says-airline-chief\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Middle East keeps travellers grounded.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Passenger numbers at Europe\u2019s biggest airport fell by five per cent in April to 6.7m with the blame being attributed to the \u201congoing impact of the Middle East conflict\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>For those heading to that particular region, Heathrow saw a whopping 50 per cent drop in volumes.<\/p>\n<p>Still, in the year-to-date (Jan\u2013Apr) traffic maintained modest growth at 1.2 per cent.<\/p>\n<p>Transfer demand grew ten per cent in April, as travellers rerouted through Heathrow to reach Asia and Oceania, helping offset losses in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cityam.com\/jet-fuel-shortage-looms-as-government-scrambles-to-secure-supplies\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">direct Middle Eastern travel.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Travel to Asia remained a major growth driver, with a 5.6 per cent increase in April and a 10.6 per cent increase year-to-date.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe know passengers want certainty when planning their hard-earned summer holidays, so we are supporting Government and airlines as they work through their plans to get passengers on their journeys,\u201d Thomas Woldbye, Heathrow\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.heathrow.com\/company\/about-heathrow\/company-information\/leadership\/executive-committee\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">top boss<\/a>, said.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><strong>Jet fuel crisis \u2018worse\u2019 than Covid<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Growing anxieties around the jet fuel shortage caused by the Iran war have rocked the travel industry.<\/p>\n<p>Tony Fernandes, chief executive of Air Asia, said last week: \u201cI thought I\u2019d seen it all with Covid\u2009[\u2026]\u2009but having seen jet fuel go up almost three times \u2014 this is much worse.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>It comes after supplies for jet fuel have tumbled to their lowest level since records began, as the war <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cityam.com\/critically-low-levels-uk-braces-for-jet-fuel-shortage-as-rationing-looms\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">blocks crucial shipping lanes for fuel.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Spirit Airlines \u2013 a US-based low-cost airline \u2013 last week collapsed under mounting pressure caused by surging oil prices. The firm had failed to secure a $500m lifeline from the Trump administration, leaving it to go out of business and cancel all flights.<\/p>\n<p>Researchers at Allianz Trade warned the UK is among the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cityam.com\/uk-at-greatest-risk-of-jet-fuel-shortage-as-flights-to-be-cancelled\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">most \u201cstructurally exposed\u201d<\/a> to jet fuel shortages.<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, transport secretary Heidi Alexander has loosened \u201cuse it or lose it\u201d rules in a bid to soften the pressures facing airlines.<\/p>\n<p>Woldbye said: \u201cWhile we have seen some short?term disruption linked to the Middle East conflict, demand for travel remains strong with current fuel supplies stable.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>By <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cityam.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">City AM<\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>More Top Reads From Oilprice.com<\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/oilprice.com\/Latest-Energy-News\/World-News\/The-Iran-War-Has-Upended-Global-LNG-Markets.html\" data-embargo=\"1774512000\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><\/p>\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Fewer passengers were heading to Heathrow Airport in April as the war in the Middle East keeps travellers&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":953082,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[18991,265992,1306,51,64716,1994,90907,79262,2662,226089,66624,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-953081","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business","8":"tag-airlines","9":"tag-asia-routes","10":"tag-aviation","11":"tag-business","12":"tag-heathrow","13":"tag-heathrow-airport","14":"tag-jet-fuel","15":"tag-middle-east-conflict","16":"tag-oil-prices","17":"tag-passenger-traffic","18":"tag-travel-demand","19":"tag-uk","20":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116557181640435072","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/953081","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=953081"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/953081\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/953082"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=953081"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=953081"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=953081"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}