Fuel shortages for airline flights loom over Europe and a group of MEPs have the proposal. Twenty of the Greens group formally sent a letter to the European Commission asking to keep private jets grounded for all trips considered non-essential, while large airlines reorganize their flight operations through cancellations and rationing due to the crisis triggered by the war in Iran.
Europe running out of jet fuel: the situation
The worsening of the conflict in the Middle East and the consequent blockade of commercial transits through the Strait of Hormuz have almost completely compromised European imports of aeronautical kerosene, the jet fuel that has been talked about so much since the start of the war in Iran. Europe imports a large part of its aviation fuel needs.
Projections indicate that the continent has enough reserves for just six weeks, a condition that had prompted Fatih Birol, director of the International Energy Agency, to speak of the “most serious energy crisis ever”.
Jet fuel crisis: refund rules and the risk of “ghost flights”
The effects on the sector, both European and otherwise, are already tangible: Lufthansa has formalized the cancellation of 20,000 flights between May and October, in a move aimed at saving around 40,000 tonnes of fuel, the Dutch company KLM has reduced flights from Amsterdam, SAS has canceled 1,000 departures in April alone, Delta Air Lines will reduce its route network by 3.5 percent to save a billion dollars, United has announced a 5 percent cut percent of domestic flights deemed “unprofitable” and rescheduling were also initiated by Cathay Pacific, Air Asia X, Air New Zealand, Chinese carriers, Qantas.
Leave private jets on the ground: the proposal
MEPs from the Green group have urged Brussels to formally include the flight ban on private aviation in the “Accelerate EU” package of energy saving measures, whose examination by the energy ministers of the twenty-seven is set for mid-May. The promoters of the initiative denounce a fundamental anomaly: numerous private planes, in fact, are currently exempt from compliance with the regulatory thresholds regarding weight, number of routes and emissions.
The crafty people of private jets: “This is how VIPs on holiday evade taxes worth millions”
In a letter addressed to the president of the EU Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, and to the transport commissioner, Apostolos Tzitzikostas., twenty Green MEPs ask to introduce a temporary ban on the flight of private jets in Europe.
Among the signatories also the Italians Ignazio Marino, Cristina Guarda and Benedetta Scuderi. “The blockade of the Strait of Hormuz has caused the sharpest increase in crude oil prices since the Russian invasion of Ukraine”, recall the MEPs in the letter, seen by ANSA. “At a time of serious energy crisis, in which families and businesses across Europe are being asked to reduce consumption and bear rising costs, it is indefensible that a small, wealthy minority continues to enjoy unlimited access to one of the most wasteful uses of fossil fuels”, they warn, calling for the ban to be included in the catalog of energy saving measures that will be presented to EU energy ministers in mid-May.
