Summer holidays at risk over aviation fuel crisis

Several airlines have now cancelled around 13,000 flights because of growing fears of a lack of jet fuel.

So far, Portuguese carriers are looking to Brazil to make up shortfalls, while TAP does not expect to cancel flights to conserve supplies of kerosene.

Nevertheless, Brussels says it will force airlines to pay out compensation for lost flights as the price of tickets is already going up online and at travel agencies.

And a war 6,000 kilometers away still hangs like a cloud over the holidays of thousands of Portuguese, especially if they are traveling on low cost airlines.

So far, 2 million seats have been cancelled for May. That seems a lot, but even so, these cancellations represent only 1% of all flights.

“We are going to start having problems at the end of June. Not all of Europe, but some countries,” anticipates Natalia Losada of Energy Aspects, quoted by Bloomberg.

So far, between June 1 and September 30, more than 9 million flight seats have been cancelled worldwide, according to Cirium.

European jet fuel stocks usually hover around 80 million barrels, but are expected to fall to around 60 million by the end of June.

After the summer, they are expected to drop to 20 million barrels if the strait does not reopen during this period.

Image: Tuan Vy Spotter on Pexels