Airlines are drawing up contingency plans if President Donald Trump’s war with Iran sparks a fuel shortage. Ben Smith, chief executive of Air France-KLM, said there are fears that the oil and gas crisis triggered by the war in the Middle East may escalate in a matter of weeks and cause chaos for the aviation industry. “South-east Asia is much more dependent on fuel coming over the Gulf than Europe is,” Smith told the Financial Times. “We can get fuel out of Europe, but when we go to [a] south-east Asian city we’re not going to be able to fly the plane back.” EasyJet boss Kenton Jarvis said fuel suppliers have reassured airlines that there is enough fuel for the next three weeks, but beyond that is still unclear. “No one’s really telling us ‘we have no immediate issues in six weeks’, because they’re not prepared to say that,” he added. Multiple airlines have already announced they are raising ticket prices or canceling flights because of the oil crisis triggered by the conflict in the Middle East, with more airport executives telling the FT they could limit flights in the coming weeks due to fuel shortages.
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