Airlines cut UK and European routes as jet fuel prices surge

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standard.co.uk

Gatwick airport suffered a fall in profits last year as it was hit by a drop in short-haul flight passengers (Gareth Fuller/PA) standard.co.uk

Ryanair said the investment will provide hundreds of jobs to local people (Peter Byrne/PA) standard.co.uk

Fishing boats dot the sea as cargo ships, in the background, sail through the Arabian Gulf toward the Strait of Hormuz off the UAE (AP) standard.co.uk

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Aurigny, the Channel Islands airline, has begun cutting flights to London City and deferring most Paris services until June as jet fuel costs surge after disruption around the Strait of Hormuz, the Evening Standard reports. Another UK carrier, Skybus, has cancelled Newquay–Gatwick flights for April and May, citing a “huge rise” in fuel costs and a sharp fall in bookings. Ryanair chief executive Michael O’Leary told ITV News he is considering cancelling 5% to 10% of flights through May to July if the conflict continues to keep fuel prices elevated.

The immediate trigger is crude, but airlines pay for refined fuel and for the risk around it. Jet fuel prices are quoted as a separate market and can move faster than headline oil when refineries, shipping routes, and inventories are stressed. The Standard cites jet fuel at about $1,710 per metric tonne, up from $742 a year earlier, while Brent briefly traded above $110 a barrel. Airlines that hedge fuel costs now face wider bid–ask spreads, higher margin requirements, and the uncomfortable fact that hedges can lock in losses if demand collapses at the same time as fuel rises.

That demand side is already visible in the route decisions. Aurigny described its cuts as a way of “preserving the number of weekly frequencies whilst reducing excess seats,” shifting passengers from London City to Gatwick and combining services from Exeter and Bristol. Skybus framed its cancellations as both “environmentally” and “economically” unsound when planes would fly with “vastly reduced passenger numbers.” In practice, the economics are straightforward: when fuel becomes the dominant variable cost, marginal routes with thin loads stop making sense, and the first capacity to disappear is often regional connectivity rather than long-haul trunk routes.

For travellers, the cost shows up as fewer seats and higher fares, plus surcharges that make “ticket price” a moving target. Aurigny has added a temporary £2 fuel adjustment surcharge on bookings made after 20 March. The bigger question is who absorbs the rest. Airlines can try to pass costs to passengers, but price-sensitive demand falls first; they can absorb it in margins, which hits shareholders; or they can seek political relief in the form of airport fee flexibility, slot waivers, or emergency support when connectivity becomes a public concern.

The episode also underlines a structural shift: security and geopolitics are turning into a permanent overhead for the European service economy. When a waterway thousands of kilometres away tightens, the cost is not only at the pump but also in timetables, route maps, and the viability of peripheral regions that rely on cheap, frequent flights.

Aurigny is now moving passengers from London City to Gatwick and trimming seats rather than frequencies. The cancellations begin in mid-April and run into early June.