Despite demand, cargo airlines battle fuel price hikes

The rising cost of fuel has been an issue of concern for the aviation industry throughout 2022, but air cargo carriers have tackled the challenge successfully. Expensive fuel is not a new phenomenon, however, a perfect storm of economic and political issues has seen prices continue to rise this year until they flattened out in early July, as per S&P Global data shared by IATA. In February, against a backdrop of strong demand for still limited capacity due to the pandemic, the Ukraine-Russia war forced airlines to fly longer routes to avoid Russia-Ukraine airspace and increase their fuel usage, and now inflation is rising around the world. The latest data from the joint Platts – IATA Jet Fuel Price Monitor shows the jet fuel price for the week ending July 15 was up 85.7 per cent compared with a year ago at $146.4/bbl. The jet fuel price average for 2022 at the time of writing (year to date) is US$ 143.6/bbl. The impact of jet fuel price developments on 2022’s industry total fuel bill is US$ 134.3 billion.