Why airlines have been cancelling flights
This Is Why
Sky News
4.0 • 552 Ratings
🗓️ 30 April 2026
⏱️ 16 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
The war in Iran has led to fears of food shortages and fuelled forecourt price hikes – but is your summer holiday also in jeopardy?
The price of jet fuel has soared higher than any other oil product, including petrol, since the Middle East conflict led to the effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz.
It means major airlines – including Qatar, Etihad and Lufthansa – have started cancelling flights. So how worried should you be about your summer holiday abroad?
Niall Paterson is joined by Sky’s business correspondent Paul Kelso.
Have you got a question for Niall? Email the show – why@sky.uk
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Sky News, the full story first. |
| 0:07.0 | Surging oil prices might just put the breaks on your summer holiday, and this is one. |
| 0:16.0 | Right then, who's all in for Cancer Research UK's Race for Life? |
| 0:25.2 | Anglers, ramblers, climbers, biversiders, surfers, gamers, bikers, hang gliders! |
| 0:32.2 | Bookclippers! Let's go all in against cancer, all in to help fund life-saving research. |
| 0:38.0 | Join our London events throughout the summer. |
| 0:40.6 | Sign up now from just £14.99. |
| 0:43.7 | Visit racefor-life.org. |
| 0:46.0 | Prices vary by event distance and participant age. |
| 0:53.6 | Hi everyone, Neil here, and in the least surprising bit of breaking news ever, oil prices have once again |
| 0:59.9 | surged. The price of a barrel of Brent crude is at the time of recording $126. Now that's its highest price |
| 1:07.3 | since the invasion of Ukraine four years ago. And whilst we're now all rather used to getting palpitations at the petrol pump, |
| 1:13.6 | the next place you'll feel the effects of the Iran War is your summer holiday, |
| 1:17.6 | thanks to jet fuel, or more accurately, a lack thereof. |
| 1:21.6 | Global production at the moment, 5.7 million barrels a day. |
| 1:25.6 | Demand is 600,000 barrels a day more than that. |
| 1:30.0 | Airlines are already getting worried because a dwindling supply means, just like petrol, |
| 1:35.6 | aviation fuel prices are also going to lally. Even more so, in fact. |
| 1:40.0 | Volatility is almost an understatement. No oil-based product has gone up faster or further |
| 1:45.5 | relatively than kerosene, than jet fuel, not petrol, not diesel, not crude itself, but it's |
| 1:51.7 | 99% more expensive than it was a year ago. And as you're about to hear, we are already seeing |
| 1:57.1 | the effects. So what will things look like by the time we're all ready to slap on the |
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