UK: Airlines to cut flights early under new fuel shortage plans

The United Kingdom (UK) government has announced that airlines will be able to cancel flights weeks in advance, without losing valuable take-off and landing slots at busy airports, if they face fuel shortages this summer.

According to the BBC, new contingency plans have been drawn up by the government to let carriers plan ahead, helping to avoid disruptive last-minute cancellations for passengers.

The BBC also reports that the proposals would allow airlines to merge flights on routes with multiple trips to the same destination on the same day, meaning passengers could be moved from their original booking to a similar one to save fuel.

However, Transport secretary Heidi Alexander said she was confident most people travelling this summer would have a similar experience to last year.

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Travel journalist Simon Calder also told the BBC the aim was to “prioritise holiday flights over business departures.”

Calder used the German airline Lufthansa as an example of how the new plans could work.

According to him, Lufthansa currently runs 10 flights a day between London Heathrow and Frankfurt.

“In the middle of summer, there aren’t many business travellers around, so therefore Lufthansa could say we’re going to cancel two or three of these,” and could move passengers on one of these services from an 08:30 departure to a 10:30 departure.

“The idea is it would save fuel for people who are on flights from Manchester to the Greek island of Skiathos where there aren’t daily departures,” he said.

Airlines further clarified that they are not currently experiencing fuel supply problems, but experts have warned that disruption to deliveries because of the Iran war could bring shortages within week

According to the BBC, the UK imports about 65% of the jet fuel it uses, a significant portion of which comes from the Middle East under normal circumstances.

But the closure of the Strait of Hormuz means those supplies cannot get through.

However, the International Energy Agency (IEA) has warned that unless more fuel can be brought in from elsewhere, Europe as a whole will face shortages by June.

Alexander said there was currently no disruption to the supply of jet fuel, but “this clearly is an evolving situation”.

She told the BBC’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg programme: “On the basis of the information that I’ve got today, I am confident that the majority of people that are travelling this summer will have a similar experience to last year.

“There may be a need for airlines to trim their schedules slightly.”

She said the UK was importing more jet fuel from the US and the west coast of Africa, as well as asking four domestic refineries to maximise production.

(BBC)