Jet Fuel Costs Skyrocket, Airlines To Hike Prices, Italy Rations Supply

Image Source: Bao Menglong on Unsplash

A reader asked for an update on jet fuel prices.

Trump Truth Social on Jet Fuel

All of those countries that can’t get jet fuel because of the Strait of Hormuz, like the United Kingdom, which refused to get involved in the decapitation of Iran, I have a suggestion for you: Number 1, buy from the U.S., we have plenty, and Number 2, build up some delayed courage, go to the Strait, and just TAKE IT. You’ll have to start learning how to fight for yourself, the U.S.A. won’t be there to help you anymore, just like you weren’t there for us. Iran has been, essentially, decimated. The hard part is done. Go get your own oil! President DJT

Jet Fuel Price Monitor

The above chart is from the Jet Fuel Monitor for the week ending March 31, 2026.

Italy Sets Jet Fuel Limits at Some Airports

Bloomberg reports Italy Sets Jet Fuel Limits at Some Airports on Supply Gap:

Several airports in Italy have issued advisories of limited fuel supplies for the next few days due to the conflict in the Middle East.
Fuel restrictions for flights have been introduced at airports including Bologna, Milan Linate, Treviso and Venice, with priority given to medical, state and long-haul flights.
The restrictions are among the earliest instances of fuel shortage in Europe impacting operations since the conflict broke out and led to the effective closure of Strait of Hormuz.

Expect Higher Ticket Prices

CNN reports Despite soaring jet fuel prices, air fares aren’t up that much. But they will be:

Gas prices are grabbing the headlines, but jet fuel prices have doubled in the last two months. So far, air fares are only up modestly.
But that could change in the next couple of months.
“We are seeing prices for summer increasing as a result of higher fuel prices,” said Hayley Berg, lead economist at air travel booking site Hopper. “For domestic trips, the higher fuel costs have pushed trips for summer up by about 10%.”
Higher fares aren’t the only way flying is about to become more expensive. Travelers can expect fewer cheap flights and more fees as airlines try to offset a massive increase in the cost of doing business.
Still, airlines can’t simply raise fares to offset increased costs like fuel. Fares primarily are based upon demand for air travel and the supply of seats.
“The more they increase air fares, the less travelers are going to fly. Or they’ll drive,” said Zach Griff, author of an airline newsletter, From the Tray Table.
Jet fuel is a huge expense for airlines, representing about 20% to 30% of their overall costs, second only to labor, according to airlines’ financial reports.

United Airlines Warns of 20% Fare Hike to Cope With Oil Surge

Bloomberg reports United Airlines Warns of 20% Fare Hike to Cope With Oil Surge:

United Airlines Holdings Inc. Chief Executive Officer Scott Kirby said ticket prices may have to go up by 20% if jet fuel prices remain elevated for longer.
The airline expects some consumer pushback and fewer people to travel if ticket prices continue to rise, Kirby said in a Bloomberg TV interview on Tuesday. The airline has already reduced 5% of its capacity on routes that are not profitable and don’t cover higher fuel prices, Kirby said.
Major US carriers like United are not hedged on fuel, leaving them without protection from volatile price jumps. The broader industry has already responded with fare increases and fuel surcharge to claw back some of the elevated costs.

That article was from March 24. So, airlines have by now hiked prices by ten to twenty percent.

Flight Cuts, Price Hikes, Cancellations

The Hill note Flight Cuts, Price Hikes, and Cancellations:

Ticket prices for the most recent week of available data, beginning March 9, were up 24 percent from the same week in 2025, according to OAG, a global travel data provider.
“We are seeing jet fuel costs increase, and that is evident in purely the fact that you look at many of these air carriers, and they’re already adding fuel surcharges,” Sally French, NerdWallet’s lead travel writer and co-host of the “Smart Travel” podcast, told The Hill in an interview.
“NerdWallet studied summer travelers before the Iran war, and … about half of Americans were going to travel, which is quite a high number — travel this summer — and they were going to spend about $4,000 more than they did last year.”
“But now we’re kind of wondering even if that stat is valid because that was conducted before we saw so much change,” she added.
Greg Raiff, an aviation logistics expert and owner of private plane company Elevate Jet, noted prices have been rising, and he doesn’t expect that to reverse any time soon.
“I do think you’ll see those prices continue to climb and climb steadily,” Raiff said. “Even if the Strait of Hormuz opened tomorrow, my sources tell me that the cost of oil and jet fuel is not going to simply drop right away, and that’s because production has been taken offline in the Middle East, because they’ve run out of storage.”

Flights Cuts

United Airlines last month became the first major U.S. carrier to scale back its schedule. CEO Scott Kirby said the airline would start “tactically pruning flying that’s temporarily unprofitable in the face of high oil prices” by cutting approximately 5 percent of planned routes during the second and third quarters of 2026.
Air New Zealand said it would cut 1,100 flights through early May, while Scandinavian group SAS said it would cancel 1,000 flights in April.
Vietnam Airlines said it could cut between 10 and 20 percent of its flights in the coming months if jet fuel prices reached $160-200 per barrel, a level already surpassed this week.
On Monday, nearly 7 percent of all global flights were canceled — 7,049 of 104,618 scheduled routes — including 14.6 percent of departures from North America, according to The Telegraph, which cited aviation analytics firm Cirium.

The US Has Plenty. Go Get Your Own.

I am sure glad the US has plenty. That means none of the above happened.

Who do you believe anyway? Trump or the lying airlines?

Economically Illiterate Trump Tells the World to “Buy Jet Fuel from Us”

On March 31, 2026, I commented Economically Illiterate Trump Tells the World to “Buy Jet Fuel from Us”: