Book holiday flights now to avoid possible fare rises later: that is the message from the boss of Britain’s biggest budget airline, easyJet.
Chief executive Kenton Jarvis said his company is currently protected against increases in the price of aviation fuel caused by the crisis in the Gulf.
Like many other European airlines, easyJet has locked into a relatively low price for most of its fuel needs over the summer – a practice known as “hedging”.
But he warned: “The reality is, as you look further forward, and the hedges start reducing in size, I think the message would be book as early as possible, because that will start feeding in at some stage.”
One senior aviation source speculated that the message was designed to spur bookings at a time when consumers were hesitant to commit.
Despite reports of possible disruption due to a shortage of aviation fuel, Mr Jarvis played down the risk of flight cancellations.
“We’re not seeing any issues with fuel supply,” he said. “We obviously stay in contact with all the airports and our suppliers, and that’s not presenting an issue right now. But it does depend, obviously, how long this lasts.”
His view was echoed by Michael O’Leary, chief executive of Europe’s biggest budget airline, Ryanair.
The CEO told reporters at an Airlines for Europe event in Brussels: “I wouldn’t foresee any issues with the supply of jet or flight cancellations.
“It is very difficult to see the US and Israel keeping up this level of attrition beyond another five or six weeks. It’s very difficult to see whether the regime will survive… but none of us know.
“So I’m not sure it’s all that helpful to speculate what happens in the third quarter.”
“If the Strait of Hormuz remains closed, oil prices will remain elevated and I think that inevitably will flow through to higher fares.”
Carsten Spohr, chief executive of the Lufthansa Group, said: “Before airlines run out of fuel, there will be many other parts of the global economy who will be short of fuel.
“Aviation uses a single-digit proportion of the world’s fuel. We will see gas stations running out of fuel before there is any effect on aviation.”
Other carriers serving the UK market, including Jet2 and British Airways, also have hedges in place to protect against the surging price of oil.
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