Europe’s leading aviation industry trade group has issued an urgent alert that the continent could face a widespread, systemic jet fuel shortage within three weeks if normal, stable passage through the strategic Strait of Hormuz is not restored.
Airports Council International (ACI) Europe, which represents hundreds of airports across the continent, revealed in a formal letter dated April 9 to the European Union’s energy and tourism commissioners that member organizations are growing increasingly alarmed over jet fuel accessibility as the peak summer travel and tourism season approaches. Smaller regional airports, the group emphasizes, face particularly severe vulnerability to any supply disruption.
The Persian Gulf, which the Strait of Hormuz connects to global shipping lanes, is the single largest source of Europe’s jet fuel imports, supplying roughly half of the continent’s total incoming volume. In the letter, ACI Europe Director-General Olivier Jankovec warned that a sudden supply crunch would trigger severe disruptions to airport operations and cross-continental air connectivity. These disruptions, he added, would carry sharp economic risks for local communities across the bloc and for the European economy as a whole.
“At this stage, we understand that if the passage through the Strait of Hormuz does not resume in any significant and stable way within the next three weeks, systemic jet fuel shortage is set to become a reality for the EU,” Jankovec wrote.
The warning comes amid mounting industry pressure already driven by fuel supply uncertainty. Airlines around the globe have already responded to tightening fuel outlooks by slashing scheduled flight capacity and raising passenger surcharges to offset higher costs. Last week, the benchmark European jet fuel price hit an unprecedented all-time high of $1,838 per tonne — more than double the $831 per tonne recorded before the outbreak of the latest Iran conflict.
Jankovec pushed back against the idea that market forces alone can resolve the looming crisis, arguing that “relying on market forces and adaptation alone is not an option.” He also criticized the European Union for lacking a bloc-wide framework to assess and monitor jet fuel production and supply levels.
To head off the shortage, ACI Europe has put forward a series of policy demands: the bloc should pursue collective jet fuel purchasing to stabilize supplies and prices, and temporarily suspend existing restrictions and regulatory barriers on jet fuel imports. The trade group also used the crisis to argue for accelerated, expanded support for sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) production, noting that the current crisis will likely keep conventional jet fuel prices elevated over the medium to long term, making scalable affordable SAF a critical long-term solution for European aviation.
Jankovec added that smaller regional airports — those handling fewer than one million passengers annually — were already facing major viability challenges before the threat of fuel shortages emerged. The current crisis, he warned, could push these already fragile facilities into greater instability, threatening the economic well-being of local communities and undermining broader European social and economic cohesion.
The stakes of any prolonged disruption are high for the European economy: commercial air travel contributes more than €851 billion to the bloc’s annual GDP and supports 14 million jobs across the continent, according to industry data. The letter was first reported by the Financial Times following its submission.