By Maria Caires
Airlines globally are panicking as they undergo emergency measures to handle the rising cost of fuel.
On April 18th, Iran had announced that they had closed the Strait of Hormuz, which is a key route for global oil transport. At home, this means that many people worried about their planned holidays abroad.
Luke Norris a 21-year-old, says: “This has left many people worried about their holidays, especially if you paid a lot of money and don’t have travel insurance to cover it.”
People are concerned that with the shortage of fuel, airlines will actually increase their ticket prices or charge them more for bags, to make up for the increase in fuel. Some airlines have already announced that they will increase the cost of their tickets, or charge more for tickets already purchased.
Fuel costs from January to March have jumped to a high of 14%, hitting $2.7 billion, BBC adds. “Delta told investors on Wednesday, a day after joining other US airlines in raising checked bag fees.”
Due to high demand and fuel prices still quite high, some airlines are looking to increase their fares while “also planning to cut around 3.5% of its passenger capacity, targeting red-eye and mid-week flights”, the BBC states.
The Delta Airlines chief executive Ed Bastian reports: “There’s a high sense of urgency to address higher fuel costs and reduce unprofitable flying”.
Image by Armin Forster from Pixabay
British Airways owner IAG and EasyJet have been lucky enough to hold off on these measures as they had bought fuel at a fixed point before the war in Iran had begun.
However, there is not much to worry about in England as the situation is less urgent and UK airlines are not at risk of reporting a shortage of fuel.
Leave a Reply