Jet fuel prices sky high

As tensions in the Strait of Hormuz continue, jet fuel prices have surged from R8.50 to R30 per litre, causing massive increases in flight prices.

702 and CapeTalk's Mandy Wiener spoke to Airlines Association of Southern Africa CEO, Aaron Munetsi, to find out more about the impact.

He said there have been two very pronounced challenges that they face:

"The first one is that there has been an increase in the price of fuel that our airlines pay when they secure Jet A-1 fuel. Remember most of Jet A-1 fuel is imported because we don't have the capacity to produce or refine crude oil ourselves into Jet A-1. And because of the fact that we are importing it means that the spike, witnessed by everybody according to IATA (International Air Transport Association) and we are also not immune to that.

"The second one, more concerning, is that there is no security of supply of the Jet A-1 fuel. In order for our airlines to achieve schedule integrity, in other words, being able to fly you as our customers where you want when we have schedules. We are not able to schedule that simply because we do not know how much longer we have availability of Jet A-1. So these two factors have been very critical for our airlines."

He explained that the security of supply is the responsibility of the suppliers.

"The organisations that import the fuel into the country. The government is only responsible for storage and for giving us the capacity to be able to put the fuel into the aircraft."

Could we see a situation where local airlines are cancelling flights?

"Oh yes, definitely," said Munetsi.

Fortunately for us our airlines have been clever in their ability to clearly see the demands. "And then be able to combine for example, if one flight is weaker than the other, they combine the two flights and then they are able to have one full load on one aircraft. That way, it enables us to have more fuel in order for us to extend how much more the fuel can be utilised."

To listen to the full discussion, click the media player above.