Jet fuel prices spoil the airline party as demand returns

Jet fuel prices are up almost USD100 a barrel compared with May-2021. This is projected to add at least an additional USD50 billion to airline industry costs this year. It could even approach USD100 billion.

This compares with the most profitable year ever in airline history, when the industry scraped USD38 billion in profit (nearly half of which was made by the major US airlines).

So what does this mean for the airline outlook? And where will the traffic and profitability growth be over the next two or three years?

These are key questions for the industry, coming off the biggest loss in its history and already deeply indebted.