Published On 6/5/2026
The European Airports Council International (ACI) association said that passenger traffic at the continent’s airports fell in April for the first time since the recovery following the Covid-19 pandemic began five years ago, due to disruptions caused by the Iran war.
The report on traffic during the month of April 2026 showed that passenger traffic through the European airport network decreased by 0.7% compared to the same month last year.
Read also
list of 4 itemsend of list
The association, which is based in Brussels, added that this decrease represents the first year-on-year decline in passenger traffic since the European aviation sector recorded its first recovery from the Covid-19 pandemic in April 2021.
The Association’s Director General, Olivier Jankovic, said in a press statement published on its website, “While we were already witnessing the return of passenger traffic growth to normal levels after the strong recovery that followed the pandemic, geopolitical instability, especially as a result of the war in the Middle East, began to cast a shadow on growth and reveal a significant discrepancy in performance across markets.”
Pressure on airlines
The disruption of navigation in the Strait of Hormuz, through which about a fifth of the world’s supplies of oil and liquefied natural gas pass, since the outbreak of the US-Israeli war on Iran has led to a significant rise in aviation fuel prices.
In this context, Daniel Shero, head of the fuel department at the International Air Transport Association (IATA), said that many airlines have been severely affected by price fluctuations in the aviation fuel market, and that other companies are not in a position to hedge against these risks.
Shiro added at the Middle East Oil and Gas Conference, organized by Standard & Poor’s Global Energy, that some airlines that implement more complex hedging plans enjoy a degree of protection, but the impact of rising jet fuel prices is damaging the aviation sector.
Fuel represents about 40% of airlines’ operational costs, according to what was reported by Agence France-Presse, which prompted airlines to raise their ticket prices to compensate for the increase in fuel costs.
Measures to confront the crisis
In a related context, CBS News reported that American Airlines joined a group of airlines that have suspended some of their flights as a result of the high cost of aviation fuel.
The network quoted an American Airlines spokesman as saying that the company has amended its flight programs during the coming months of August and September to confront the rise in operating costs with the rise in fuel prices.
Some countries have taken measures to confront the shortage of aviation fuel in the markets and its high prices. The Russian government announced on Monday the imposition of a “temporary ban on the export of aviation engine fuel outside Russia until next November 30.”
India also approved a package worth one billion dollars to support airlines to limit the repercussions of rising fuel prices.
