Europe’s planes are about to run out of fuel
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Mac Miller lyrics that European airlines cannot relate to right now: “I never run out of jet fuel.” The Strait of Hormuz’s closure has disrupted oil supplies so drastically that Europe has “maybe six weeks” of jet fuel left, with flight cancellations coming “soon” unless the waterway reopens, the head of the International Energy Agency told the Associated Press yesterday. This is “the largest energy crisis we have ever faced,” IEA Executive Director Fatih Birol said. His comments follow an even bleaker warning from the trade group that represents European airports, ACI Europe, which said last week that fuel shortages could commence in as little as three weeks. European airlines are fastening their oxygen masks:
Around the world, airlines are clawing back cash by raising ticket prices. All major US airlines have hiked baggage fees in recent weeks. US travel may be better protected (for now)Europe’s oil refineries have been dwindling for decades, and the continent is the biggest recipient of jet fuel that passes through the Strait of Hormuz. Across the pond, however, the US reigns as the world’s largest net exporter of jet fuel, and it produces most of the juice its airlines need in-house. Still, major US airlines (even Delta, which has its own oil refinery) project billions of dollars in added costs if fuel prices don’t return to normal. The price spike could reportedly sink Spirit Airlines entirely. Looking ahead…if the US and Iran reach an agreement to reopen the strait, it could take “up to two years to come back where we were before the war,” Birol said of global oil flow. |