But the EU doesn’t agree.
“There have been some reports in these two previous days suggesting Europe could be close to running out of jet fuel. That is not an accurate reflection of the situation,” Tzitzikostas said during a press conference in Nicosia.
Some European airlines like Lufthansa, KLM and SAS have cut back on flights, while ticket prices are rising in response to the fuel price surge. Airlines “have chosen in these past days to cancel some of their lines because they were already not profitable,” Tzitzikostas said.
Even if Iran’s Friday announcement restores normal shipping out of the Gulf, it could take “a period of months” for normal fuel levels to be restored, Willie Walsh, director general of the International Air Transport Association, said earlier this month.
Birol, who spoke a day before the Iranian decision, based his comments on the IEA’s latest oil market report, which looks at jet fuel supply risks in EU member countries. France and Germany were identified as the most exposed among big EU countries.
Birol warned that “if we are not able to open the Strait of Hormuz … I can tell you soon we will hear the news that some of the flights from city A to city B might be canceled as a result of lack of jet fuel.”
Anna-Kaisa Itkonen, the European Commission’s transport spokesperson, said Friday that if fuel flows from the Gulf don’t resume, Brussels “will be preparing to launch possible coordinated action as regards to jet fuels.”
Lennart Roos contributed to this report.