Why airlines are now cutting prices | FT #shorts

Added: 2026-05-18

[00:00:00]Have you booked your summer holiday?

[00:00:02]Lots of people are pushing theirs back.

[00:00:05]They're concerned increasingly about the potential shortages of jet fuel.

[00:00:09]The conflict in Iran has caused chaos in the global energy markets, closing the Strait of Hormuz, which accounts for 40% of the world's kerosene.

[00:00:17]That has led to the price of jet fuel doubling and in some places led to some shortages. Now there are worries those might hit Europe in the summer.

[00:00:26]And so people are pushing back booking their holidays. No one wants to pay for a holiday if the flight that takes you there might never take off. Now for airlines, this is a disaster. Airlines, particularly short-haul airlines, make all of their money in the summer months.

[00:00:40]And so they are pushing back. Many are lowering prices. EasyJet and British Airways have issued price promises that they won't raise their prices because of jet fuel.

[00:00:51]The FT looked at 50 of the most popular routes going into the Mediterranean in July and more than a half of them have seen price cuts during April. Some of those were 10 to 15%. Some of them were as high as 40%. So are consumers going to book?

[00:01:08]Airlines are telling them to. They're warning that they should book now to avoid disappointment. And analysts are saying that even if there are flight cancellations because of jet fuel shortages, they will only be 5 to 10% of those. The sky will still be full of planes come the summer.