Soaring costs of aviation fuel is set to result in a spike in flight prices worldwide, CEO of Aer Lingus has warned.
Lynne Embleton says the price of fuel accounts for around 25-30% of the overall costs for airlines. While buying fuel in advance is currently keeping the cost at bay, it won't be long before flight prices will have to increase.
The airline boss told RTE this morning: "When fuel price goes up it is inevitable eventually that will be passed through to customers."
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"It doesn't happen immediately but you would expect the industry to recover those costs," she added.
Ms Embleton said there are still low fares available right now, however the cheap flights won't be around for much longer.
"Ultimately we do see fuel costs needing to be reflected in price," she added.
Both Ryanair and Aer Lingus have increased the number and frequency of flights out of Dublin Airport this summer as the travel sector looks to bounce back after two years of pandemic.
And Aer Lingus CEO Embleton said the airline had not been hit by the same scale of staff shortages and bottle-neck issues which have caused major disruption worldwide.
"We are absolutely still flying the programme that we set out, we are at 85% of 2019 capacity already and as you know that it is intended to get to 90% at the peak and we’re absolutely on track for doing that," she said.
"You’ve seen globally the impact of supply chain shortages and problems with airport security in many many airports around the world and we are not immune to that," she added.
"We’ve recruited, we’ve been pleased with the number of people who want to join Aer Lingus, and we are ramping up nicely," she stated."
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