Aerolinele pot anula zboruri în avans din cauza lipsei de combustibil în noile planuri

Airlines can cancel flights in advance over fuel shortages under new plans46 minutes agoBloomberg/Getty ImagesTheo LeggettTransport correspondentAirlines will be able to cancel flights weeks in advance, without losing valuable take off and landing slots at busy airports, if they face fuel shortages this summer.New contingency plans have been drawn up by the government to let carriers plan ahead, helping to avoid disruptive last-minute cancellations for passengers.The proposals would allow airlines to merge flights on routes with multiple trips to the same destination on the same day, meaning passengers could be moved from their original booking to a similar one to save fuel.Travel journalist Simon Calder told the BBC the aim was „prioritise holiday flights over business departures.” Calder used the German airline Lufthansa as an example of how the new plans could work.Lufthansa currently runs 10 flights a day between London Heathrow and Frankfurt, he said.”In the middle of summer there aren’t many business travellers around, so therefore Lufthansa could say we’re going to cancel two or three of these,” and could move passengers on one of these services from an 08:30 departure to a 10:30 departure.”The idea is it would save fuel for people who are on flights from Manchester to the Greek island of Skiathos where there aren’t daily departures,” he said.Ministers have also asked the UK’s four refineries to maximise jet fuel supply, and are exploring ways to increase supplies from the US.Airlines say they are not currently experiencing fuel supply problems, but experts have warned that disruption to deliveries because of the Iran war could bring shortages within weeks.The UK imports about 65% of the jet fuel it uses, a significant portion of which comes from the Middle East under normal circumstances.But the closure of the Strait of Hormuz means those supplies cannot get through.The International Energy Agency has warned that unless more fuel can be brought in from elsewhere, Europe as a whole will face shortages by June.The government wants to allow airlines to save fuel by adjusting their schedules in advance, for example by cutting one or two flights a day on a route where they have many services to the same destination.Airlines are usually reluctant to do this because it would place at risk their right to retain their allotted take off and landing slots at airports like London’s Heathrow and Gatwick.The most popular slots can be worth tens of millions of pounds, when traded between airlines.The allocated slots over a summer or winter normally roll over to the following year, but there is one key condition: they have to be used at least 80% of the time, otherwise they can be snapped up by rival airlines.In practice, this can encourage airlines to fly half-empty planes to keep the slots.Getty ImagesThe rules as they stand are contained in the Airports Slot Allocation Regulations 2025, which incorporated the EU’s rules into UK law.They are usually im