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Qantas sees bigger jet fuel bill as financial leaders warn of 'prolonged' petrol price hikes
Surging jet fuel prices may raise costs for Australia’s Qantas by up to A$800m ($570m) in the second half of this year, the airline said on Tuesday.
War in the Middle East has led jet fuel prices to more than double and they remained “extremely volatile”, the carrier said in a market update, cited by AFP.
It came as global financial organisations warned of a continuing worldwide oil shock.
The directors of the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank and the International Energy Agency (IEA) said the war’s damage to energy facilities could keep fuel and fertiliser prices high for “a prolonged period”.
Fatih Birol, executive director of the IEA, said the disruptions to oil supplies from the conflict was “the greatest energy security challenge in history”.
A third of the 80 Middle East energy facilities his agency was monitoring had been damaged, he said.
Birol warned that April could be worse than March for the world economy because many fuel shipments from before the war were still arriving in ports last month.
Birol, quoted by the AP, was speaking at IMF headquarters in Washington DC after meeting with IMF managing director Kristalina Georgieva and World Bank president Ajay Banga.
US oil prices were $98 a barrel in afternoon trading after topping $100 earlier on Monday.
Updated
