Amid the ongoing fuel crisis sparked by the Middle East conflict, yet another airline has cautioned that further flights could be grounded.

Since the US-Israeli strikes erupted on February 28, air travel has faced significant disruption, with cancelled routes and a sharp rise in the cost of jet fuel. The situation was further exacerbated by Iran's blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, through which around 20 per cent of the world's oil and gas passes, triggering a worldwide shortage.

As a consequence of the fuel crisis, Cathay Pacific has scrapped a number of flights from May 16 to June 30, while Qantas Airways and Virgin Atlantic have also sounded the alarm over supply shortages and mounting costs. Now, one of Europe's largest carriers, Lufthansa, has warned that grounding flights due to fuel shortages "may be unavoidable".

Lufthansa CEO Carsten Spohr told German newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung: "Kerosene will remain in short supply and therefore more expensive for the rest of the year." He also noted that the supply of kerosene, widely used as aviation fuel, is critical for airports, particularly those across Asia.

However, Spohr pointed out that record revenues on their Asian routes had been helping to offset the impact of soaring kerosene prices. Yet, should the fuel crisis fail to improve considerably, the airline could reduce its capacity by 2.5% or 5% and ground between 20 and 40 older, less fuel-efficient aircraft that had already been earmarked for early retirement.

Although the airline has yet to ground its fleet, the development comes at an unsettling time for the aviation industry, with fears that should the Strait of Hormuz fail to fully reopen, jet fuel shortages will persist. Holidaymakers may also find themselves facing steeper flight prices as airlines grapple with escalating costs driven by supply disruptions, reports the Mirror.

Just this week, Virgin Atlantic announced it had raised some of its flight prices by as much as £360 in response to the fuel crisis. The increases stem from an additional £50 fuel surcharge on economy-class tickets, while premium economy fares are climbing by £180 and business class by £360.

Virgin Atlantic Chief Executive Corneel Koster warned passengers that flight prices could continue to climb in the months ahead and potentially for the remainder of the year. He said:

"We have never seen jet fuel at this level and airlines cannot sustain those sorts of high costs. If the fuel price goes much higher, I think the surcharges may go higher. If they go up in a week and you book in two weeks' time, you'll be paying higher."

While there are currently no fuel shortages, Koster acknowledged it was impossible to guarantee supplies further down the line. "We have contracts with multiple suppliers who have a wide range of diversity of where the jet fuel comes from," he explained.

"We have good visibility and no concern for the coming one to two months - certainly for the remainder of April and May. Beyond that I have less visibility, but that is quite normal."

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