Airlines will have to continue reimbursing travelers if they cancel flights due to high jet fuel prices, EU Sustainable Transport and Tourism Commissioner, Apostolos Tzitzikostas, told the Financial Times in an interview published on Thursday.
European airlines are struggling with a spike in jet fuel prices, while officials and analysts warn that Europe has just weeks before it feels kerosene shortages.
Tzitzikostas played down estimates that jet fuel shortages could hit Europe in June if the situation at the Strait of Hormuz does not improve, and warned against alarmist messages ahead of the peak tourism season.
The EU’s plan from last month to accelerate coordination among all member states to ensure the availability of jet fuel and diesel should help the bloc go through this period of major supply disruptions, he added.
According to the commissioner, the spike in jet fuel prices is no extraordinary circumstance for canceling flights.
“The price of jet fuel is the reason why we have cancellations of flights and if they cancel flights without extraordinary circumstances — jet fuel prices are not extraordinary circumstances — they will have to reimburse the people,” Tzitzikostas told FT.
Earlier this week, Lufthansa Group, Europe’s biggest airline, said it expects the surge in jet fuel prices to cost it an additional $2 billion this year as the closure of the Strait of Hormuz “is leading to a shortage in kerosene supply and thus to a significant increase in kerosene prices.”
The war in Iran and the closure of the Strait of Hormuz have severely constrained Europe’s jet fuel supply, while jet fuel prices have spiked to over $200 per barrel.
The war in Iran has cut most of Europe’s imports of jet fuel, while local output has been falling for nearly two decades due to dozens of refineries closing permanently or being converted to biofuel production.
By Michael Kern for Oilprice.com
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