Jet fuel crisis: Who’re the newest European airlines to cancel or suspend flights?

The ripple effect of the Middle East conflict continues to rattle Europe’s business aviation sector amid sky high costs for jet fuel.

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The newest figures from the International Air Transport Association (IATA) point to a 105.7% increase in jet fuel prices in Europe since last yr, leaving summer travel plans hanging within the balance as carriers like Turkish Airlines, Transavia France and Lufthansa ground planes and suspend flight routes.

Listed below are the newest airlines to announce they’ve been hit by the jet fuel crisis.

Transavia

Dutch-owned carrier Transavia, a part of the Air France-KLM group, is cancelling some flights between May and June.

The low-cost airline said affected passengers would give you the chance to choose from a voucher, full refund or free rebooking, which shall be offered inside 24 hours for the vast majority of cancelled flights.

“The present geopolitical context within the Middle East and its repercussions on the value of aviation fuel” is what caused the cancellations, Transavia said in a press release to AP, without mention of which flight paths have been axed.

KLM also previously announced that it’s cancelling 160 flights to and from Schiphol Airport within the Netherlands in May, which is lower than 1% of its European flights during that period. The Dutch carrier pointed to rising kerosene costs, making the flights not financially viable to operate.

Turkish Airlines

Türkiye’s flag carrier is reportedly suspending 18 flight routes and trimming frequencies across its network.

In response to Aeroroutes, an independent airline schedule and route tracking platform, Turkish Airlines’ latest summer and early winter schedules shall be impacted, with suspensions going down from May and June.

These changes span European, African and Asian routes, including Istanbul to Hurghada, where the newest flight is scheduled to operate 2 June and all 2027 services have been removed.

“Suspended international destinations include Aqaba, Billund, Bissau, Ferghana, Freetown, Havana, Hurghada, Juba, Kinshasa, Kirkuk, Leipzig/Halle, Libreville, Luanda, Lusaka, Monrovia, Najaf, Pointe Noire and Turkistan,” Aeroroutes said.

Ver Angola reported that the Portuguese National Civil Aviation Authority was notified that flights to the Angolan capital Luanda shall be suspended from 3 May until 25 November, “with a view to resume flights as soon as circumstances allow”.

Other flight path watchdogs report that in Sarajevo, a median of three weekly services will not be operating from July, in addition to a discount of on to 2 weekly services from Zagreb starting in June.

Just last month, Turkish Airlines announced it added London Stansted routes to its UK network, with 15 weekly frequencies.

Meanwhile, SunExpress, a three way partnership between Turkish Airlines and Lufthansa, will introduce a €10 “temporary fuel surcharge” on passengers from May, covering all routes from Türkiye to Europe.

In response to The Independent within the UK, passengers booking flights on or after 1 April for travel from 1 May onwards shall be subject to the extra fee.

This comes as Lufthansa announced earlier this month that it had grounded 20,000 flights in a bid to curb jet fuel costs.

Is all of it gloom and doom for our plans and wallets?

The Independent also reported that German tourism giant TUI is not going to be increasing holiday prices for patrons who’ve already booked their holidays.

“Our teams are here to support people who find themselves fascinated with booking, and people who have already booked with TUI may be reassured that their holiday price is fixed, with no fuel surcharges added,” said Neil Swanson, managing director of TUI UK & Ireland.