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Europe has 6 weeks of jet fuel left *[title amended]

268 replies

Plump82 · 16/04/2026 19:12

What's people's thoughts on this - is it scare mongering?
My main holiday isn't for another wee while but are we going to see disruptions/cancellations to rival COVID times?

  • [Title amended at OP's request to make it clear that news reports are referring to jet / aviation fuel]
OP posts:
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8
CautiousLurker2 · 18/04/2026 09:10

Airelles · 17/04/2026 22:20

You can get there by train. The train goes across on a ferry!

Looking into this - but it will take 36 hours and 7 trains from st Pancras to Palermo (and a train and tube to get to st Pancras and a further train to get from Palermo to the actual destination). Same on return - for a 7 day holiday.

If we had all the time in the world (we don’t DS finishes his A levels 36hours before the scheduled flights) and unlimited dog sitting (again, we don’t - sitter is booked for 8 nights) we could do a leisurely inter-rail/or driving holiday but the alternative means of travel just don’t work in this instance.

Still, going to be optimistic that they will honour existing bookings and manage new ones. Am thinking there will either be no ‘last minute deals’ this year as the cheap flights will not be available - or there will be loads when/if this blows over.

DancingDelli · 18/04/2026 09:15

If we run out of jet fuel our summer holiday will be the least of our problems🙄

crackofdoom · 18/04/2026 10:23

deplorabelle · 17/04/2026 22:53

While a lot of people overstate how bad UK trains are, the West Coast Main Line is pretty appalling (not as bad as the worst routes on Deutsche Bahn but it's up there). To make a viable connection to Italy or Spain you really need to be on the 9.01 Eurostar at the latest, which is hard to do if you don't live in South East England. And that's without worrying if the train is going to be late or cancelled which it very well could be.

Where did you go in Italy and how long did it take you to get there? I can see that interrail can add flexibility but surely there's a limit to how much flexibility is on offer if you need to use high speed to get there. Did you do the journey within one day?

I can never get to Italy in one day because I'm starting in Cornwall, so can't get an early Eurostar (but bear in mind the nearest airport from which I could fly to Italy is 4 hours away- Bristol- so last time I flew was in 2018- to Venice- and it was an early morning flight so I had to take the train up the day before, get an AirBnB in Nailsea and a cab to the airport the next day. I regularly used to fly back from Paris to Bristol, and by the time I got home it was a very long day indeed).

What I did this time was spend a pleasant evening in Paris and get the TGV to Nice in the late morning, local train to Ventimiglia and then up into the hills, arriving where I was staying about 7.00 in the evening.

On the way back I got the sleeper train from Nice to Paris, leisurely breakfast in Paris, midday Eurostar, stopped for a curry at Drummond St in Euston, back in Cornwall about 8.00pm (to find my car wouldn't start, yay for driving 🙄). So 25 hours, but it would have been less if I hadn't built in time for relaxed meals and people watching!

That's not the fastest way though- there's a fast train from Paris to Milan that takes 7 hours. There are also going to be sleeper trains from Brussels to Milan from September.

Seat61.com gives plenty of options for getting to Italy in one day from London.

notimagain · 18/04/2026 11:20

https://www.theguardian.com/travel/2026/apr/18/europe-summer-holiday-flight-cross-channel-travel-cancelled-flights-airport-eu-ees

There's a lot in there, but I thought this summed up my current POV

*Kenton Jarvis, the chief executive of easyJet, said: “We only ever in this industry have three to four weeks’ visibility. We have a visibility to the middle of May and we have no concerns.”

It's the three to four weeks visibility that's just one of the problems...and the news this AM with regard to the Straits is more uncertainty.

Can Europe avoid a summer of holiday flight and cross-Channel travel chaos?

Passengers face risk of cancellations due to fuel shortages – and long airport queues due to EU entry-exit system

https://www.theguardian.com/travel/2026/apr/18/europe-summer-holiday-flight-cross-channel-travel-cancelled-flights-airport-eu-ees

Notonthestairs · 18/04/2026 11:38

interesting article - thanks notimagain

southerngirl10 · 18/04/2026 12:01

How are we going to send failed asylum seekers back now?

whattheysay · 18/04/2026 12:11

countrygirl99 · 18/04/2026 08:49

Well I COULD walk from London to Manchester. Possible but no one does it for a reason.

Edited

Not the same at all is it. And if there’s no jet fuel and you can’t fly then you could actually drive it is not impossible, if you don’t want to then don’t go

nomas · 18/04/2026 12:31

southerngirl10 · 18/04/2026 12:01

How are we going to send failed asylum seekers back now?

Nice shoehorn in the Holiday forum. Hmm

nomas · 18/04/2026 12:33

countrygirl99 · 18/04/2026 08:49

Well I COULD walk from London to Manchester. Possible but no one does it for a reason.

Edited

Get a train.

countrygirl99 · 18/04/2026 12:36

nomas · 18/04/2026 12:33

Get a train.

Precisely my point, walking takes too long

countrygirl99 · 18/04/2026 12:41

whattheysay · 18/04/2026 12:11

Not the same at all is it. And if there’s no jet fuel and you can’t fly then you could actually drive it is not impossible, if you don’t want to then don’t go

The point is it may be possible but that doesn't make it practical. So extra time for paying someone to look after my animals. Extra time for my self employed husband to be off work with no pay. Extra accommodation and meal costs for the much longer journey. You may have no time and money constraints but that's quite rare among the general population.

begonefoulclutter · 18/04/2026 13:18

southerngirl10 · 17/04/2026 22:59

Of course everyone didn't vote him in. Just most people. America has had loads of controversial presidents, yet they portray themselves as on the side of truth and liberty. I just wish the UK didn't follow everything they b**y do!

Not most, no. Only the Republicans, which was more than half, clearly, but not most. Our family out there are all Democrats and they are genuinely in despair.

There may have been controversial Presidents before, but until now, none of them were batshit.

southerngirl10 · 18/04/2026 13:31

begonefoulclutter · 18/04/2026 13:18

Not most, no. Only the Republicans, which was more than half, clearly, but not most. Our family out there are all Democrats and they are genuinely in despair.

There may have been controversial Presidents before, but until now, none of them were batshit.

Isn't "more than half," most?

CautiousLurker2 · 18/04/2026 13:51

southerngirl10 · 18/04/2026 12:01

How are we going to send failed asylum seekers back now?

Perhaps we could run a shuttle and british holiday makers could take the dinghies back to France?

CautiousLurker2 · 18/04/2026 13:54

southerngirl10 · 18/04/2026 13:31

Isn't "more than half," most?

Quite - more than half of those that bothered to vote, elected him and his republican cronies. Those that didn’t bother to go to the polls acquiesced to whatever result evolved, so are just as responsible, because they didn’t hate him enough to prevent him from being elected by voting at all. They just hated Kamala Harris enough not to vote for the democrats. This situation is, I’m afraid, as much of the democrats making as the Republicans.

Nellietheolophant · 18/04/2026 14:00

So the Strait has now been closed again by Iran! That didn"t even last 24hrs

justasking111 · 18/04/2026 14:24

Nellietheolophant · 18/04/2026 14:00

So the Strait has now been closed again by Iran! That didn"t even last 24hrs

Edited

And they're blaming America 🙈

IncessantNameChanger · 18/04/2026 14:34

The fact is the vast majority of Americans either love him or are indifferent to him. I'm not convinced if there was elections tomorrow they wouldn't vote him back in.

However he overall weakens the West. So by default I think he weakens the USA. Also we would be absolute fools to think we heavily rely on the US ever from now on. Greedy profiteering and privatisation has come to bite us in the arse too. We can't stand on our own two feet.

deplorabelle · 18/04/2026 15:08

crackofdoom · 18/04/2026 10:23

I can never get to Italy in one day because I'm starting in Cornwall, so can't get an early Eurostar (but bear in mind the nearest airport from which I could fly to Italy is 4 hours away- Bristol- so last time I flew was in 2018- to Venice- and it was an early morning flight so I had to take the train up the day before, get an AirBnB in Nailsea and a cab to the airport the next day. I regularly used to fly back from Paris to Bristol, and by the time I got home it was a very long day indeed).

What I did this time was spend a pleasant evening in Paris and get the TGV to Nice in the late morning, local train to Ventimiglia and then up into the hills, arriving where I was staying about 7.00 in the evening.

On the way back I got the sleeper train from Nice to Paris, leisurely breakfast in Paris, midday Eurostar, stopped for a curry at Drummond St in Euston, back in Cornwall about 8.00pm (to find my car wouldn't start, yay for driving 🙄). So 25 hours, but it would have been less if I hadn't built in time for relaxed meals and people watching!

That's not the fastest way though- there's a fast train from Paris to Milan that takes 7 hours. There are also going to be sleeper trains from Brussels to Milan from September.

Seat61.com gives plenty of options for getting to Italy in one day from London.

I've not done the Ventimiglia route yet (it looks nice though, albeit doesn't get that far into Italy). I have done the Paris - Milan line a couple of times on both TGV and Frecciarossa. It's a gorgeous line and I did get door to door to Milan in one day (needed a lift for the first bit as I had to start before the local buses woke up). Turin is even easier and a much nicer destination.

Your journey and mine were both really nice ways of getting to Italy and I do think people should try to do more journeys like ours and fewer mindless hops in aeroplanes, both for CO2 reasons and to reduce over tourism.

But I don't honestly think we will win many people over by claiming the train is a good or an easy replacement for the plane because for a lot of people it really isn't! Most people don't care about having a lovely, interesting, comfortable journey with points to appreciate stopover cities along the way like I do, and you obviously do too.

I've done a couple of talks on train travel to environmental groups and even when you're preaching to the converted, someone will say "my son lives in Cyprus can I get the train to visit him?" and you'll watch a room full of people look completely disillusioned as you describe a route that's theoretically possible but unlikely to appeal to anyone who doesn't have both time and money to burn.

I will keep plugging on with my train holidays. I really enjoy them, and I talk about them to other people who love the idea of doing it themselves (and sometimes do) but often find the reality a little bit unworkable. Until we stop killing railway development and subsiding the airline industry in thousands of stupid ways, avoiding air travel is always going to be a somewhat niche pursuit.

countrygirl99 · 18/04/2026 15:19

DH used to have to go to Bordeaux a lot for work and he much preferred the train. It was pre the low cost airlines flying to regional airports so he had to fly to Paris then train but Eurostar and TGV was actually quicker and less hassle. Been to Austria by train a couple of times and fine interail for a month but it's not practical for the peripheries of Europe unless it's a longer visit.

whattheysay · 18/04/2026 16:30

countrygirl99 · 18/04/2026 12:41

The point is it may be possible but that doesn't make it practical. So extra time for paying someone to look after my animals. Extra time for my self employed husband to be off work with no pay. Extra accommodation and meal costs for the much longer journey. You may have no time and money constraints but that's quite rare among the general population.

Don’t go then

countrygirl99 · 18/04/2026 16:43

whattheysay · 18/04/2026 16:30

Don’t go then

Flight hasn't been cancelled yet but thanks for your sympathy. Did the empathy removal hurt much?

CautiousLurker2 · 18/04/2026 18:34

@countrygirl99 I am with you - we don’t have time for a 9 train/ferry trans European trip at our leisure, either. We have 36hrs between DS’s final exam and the hoped for flight booking. Apparently we could do it non-stop but we’d arrive late and be shattered. Even if returning could be done on a leisurely basis, DH has to be back at work and the dogsitters are booked with other clients. It’s fly or lose our money.

Am vacillating between cautious optimism it will be fine and angry disappointment every time Trump opens his big fat orange mouth!!

[And yes, then I try to consider that in the face of a huge non-refundable outlay that would cover a large chunk of DS’s year one accommodation fees at uni, there are obviously people dying and, in Europe, people losing their livelihoods in the economic fallout.]

IncessantNameChanger · 19/04/2026 01:56

I'm wondering where we could go if our package holiday is cancelled. I keep thinking I could pop over to Ireland as normal every year but I guess short haul will be hard to book to. I guess it would be uk or a ferry.

Not sure I could face the Irish sea. IOM is rough enough.

RonaldMcDonaldTrump · 19/04/2026 10:25

People not continuing to book their holidays as normal is going to cause way more of a dire problem for airlines than this jet fuel issue is.

I've been researching this for a few days now and from what I've read package holidays have the least chance of being cancelled, which is the same for peak tourist routes, as the profits on these offset the rising fuel costs from having to import from other markets such as the US instead. I think we need to remind ourselves that Trump is a businessman as well as a twat, and as soon as we remember that, we start to realise why he's in no such hurry to get this over and done with. He has made it crystal clear that he hates European leaders and will be revelling at the economic impact this is having on us. Remember he's just funneled a shit ton of crude oil out of Venezuela, which is now being refined in US refineries and available to export to the poor souls in Europe. Funny that.

There arent shortages, there is still plenty of oil but the price of sourcing more expensively from elsewhere means the airlines have to be selective of which routes would remain economically profitable to continue. Many airlines have come out and said that it's business routes or non profitable routes that may be cancelled or consolidated.