TORONTO — The warnings may be from different parts of the world, but the message is the same: jet fuel prices aren’t coming down any time soon, and in fact this could be the new-normal not just for months, but potentially years.
This as Canadians are already watching their wallets, and as the industry heads into the busy winter sun 2026-27 season on Nov. 1.
LATAM Airlines CEO Robert Alvo told the 22nd annual ALTA AGM and Airline Leaders Forum in Mexico City this week that jet fuel prices won’t be coming down any time soon. “The safe position to take today is that the high prices will be in place for a long time,” said Alvo.
More than 40 airline CEOs are taking part in the ALTA forum, including WestJet Group CEO Alexis von Hoensbroech.
IATA’s Jet Fuel Price Monitor, updated weekly, shows an 113.7% year over year increase in the global average jet fuel price, for the week ending Oct. 16.That’s also a 4.3% jump from last month.
“Throughout this year, many people have had the impression that the crisis in the Middle East would be shorter. The situation has not normalized,” said Alvo.
Speaking at the Global Tourism Economy Forum (GTEF) in Macau this past Friday, Air Asia co-founder Tony Fernandes noted that even the many airlines that hedged their fuel will soon be impacted. “Any airline who says it’s great is not telling the truth. A lot of people’s hedges are coming off, and prices are going to go up dramatically.”
Fernandes noted that the last global travel disruption – the pandemic – had a light at the end of the tunnel with the arrival of the vaccine. “You can’t get a vaccination for Donald Trump. We just have to live with it for the moment,” said Fernandes.
Meanwhile Virgin Australia’s chief customer officer Andrew Cleary told an Australian Senate inquiry the carrier has had to cut a number of domestic regional routes including Uluru-Brisbane, Uluru-Melbourne, Adelaide-Hobart and Adelaide-Cairns in recent months because sky-high jet fuel costs meant Virgin Australia could no longer operate the routes profitably.
Australia’s wide open spaces mean rural and regional lift is a lifeline for millions of people, just like in Canada.
Said Cleary: “We would have stuck it out but jet fuel just made it completely unsustainable. This is not a two to three-month spike in jet fuel, there are very few people in industry that think this will be a short-run impact.”
