The end of the conflict with Iran will be accompanied by a sigh of relief from anyone planning air travel. For months, jet passengers have worried that flights might be canceled owing to a lack of jet fuel, given that 20% of the world’s supply transits through the Strait of Hormuz.
At one point, the International Energy Agency said Europe had “maybe six weeks” of supplies left, and commercial airlines canceled thousands of seats.
But two private jet operators have now told Fortune that there never was a shortage of jet fuel. Sure, the price went up, but at no point was fuel close to being unavailable, they both said.
“We have not seen any shortage of fuel anywhere, whether it’s domestic in the United States or for European travel,” said Jamie Walker, executive chairman of Jet Linx, a company that manages private jet fleets. Jet Linx has about 100 planes in 22 locations.
“We have obviously seen price increases, but we have not seen shortages in any of the airports that we’ve operated into.”
Previously, Greg Raiff, CEO of private jet services company Elevate Jet, told Fortune the same thing.
In fact, sales are up 80% on Jet Linx’s jet cards, Walker said. “Production of fuel has gone up by 6X, and so the U.S. is actually exporting a ton of fuel right now to Europe to overcome that shortage.”
“As an airline, we’re not seeing what they’re saying. There’s zero issue with [jet fuel], we’re buying from the same pump.”
Officials now say the same thing. Saudi Arabia is projected to ship more jet fuel in June than it did before the strait was closed: an estimated 118,000 to 140,000 barrels per day, Reuters reported.
“There is currently no jet fuel shortage in Europe. We have no signs that we will have a shortage in the coming period,” European Union transport commissioner Apostolos Tzitzikostas said in early June. “Some airlines are choosing to cancel some of their routes that didn’t make any economic sense,” he said.
Elevate’s Raiff previously told Fortune that he suspected the flight cancellations were driven by commercial airlines wanting to weasel out of routes that became less lucrative as the price of jet fuel went up.
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