Air Canada planes sits on the tarmac at Pearson Airport in Toronto on February, 2026.Sammy Kogan/The Globe and Mail
Air Canada AC-T is suspending flights to New York’s John F. Kennedy airport as surging jet fuel costs linked to the war in the Middle East prompt the airline to pare back its travel offerings to maintain profit targets.
The airline will stop its four daily flights from Montreal and Toronto to JFK starting June 1 and plans to restart them Oct. 25, it said in an e-mailed statement. Customers affected will be offered other travel options, the airline said.
“Jet fuel prices have doubled since the start of the Iran conflict and some lower-profitability routes and flights are no longer economic,” Air Canada spokesman Christophe Hennebelle said in the statement. “We are making schedule adjustments accordingly.”
Experts warn against cancelling trips early as dwindling jet fuel supply upends travel plans
The JFK airport is the biggest serving the New York metropolitan area but it’s not as key a hub for Air Canada as Newark Liberty International or LaGuardia. The airline said it will maintain its 34 daily flights from six cities in Canada to those two other major New York airports.
Attacks on oil storage and refiners in the Middle East, coupled with the lack of tanker movements through the Strait of Hormuz, have caused jet fuel prices to soar and oil prices to rise by 40 per cent since the conflict began in February. Airlines around the world have cut back their flight schedules, raised seat fares and taken other steps in response.
Britain’s easyJet said on Thursday its bookings were lagging compared with last year’s, while Germany’s Lufthansa became the first major carrier to ground planes because of high jet fuel costs as airlines counted the cost of the Iran war. Hungary’s Wizz Air has already said its annual net profit will take a €50-million ($80.5-million) hit.
Jet fuel prices have increased to between US$150 and US$200 a barrel from between US$85 and US$90 a barrel in recent weeks, a financial hit for an industry where fuel accounts for up to a quarter of operating expenses. Analysts warn further capacity cuts, groundings and surcharges are likely, with markets watching airlines’ results for clues on the extent of the war’s impact on their fragile profit margins and revenue.
There were developments Friday, however, that pointed to the prospect of an agreement to end the conflict.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said the Strait of Hormuz was open after a ceasefire agreement in Lebanon. U.S. President Donald Trump said talks could take place this weekend and he believed a deal to end the Iran war would come “soon.”
Airlines in Europe could face a jet fuel shortage by June if the Strait of Hormuz remains blocked, the International Energy Agency has warned. European refiners have been unsuccessfully “scrambling” to replace the lost supply with fuel from U.S. sources ahead of the busy summer travel season, the IEA said in a report on Thursday.
Most of Europe’s jet fuel usually passes through the strait, which has essentially been closed since the conflict between Iran, the United States and Israel began on Feb. 28, sending energy prices soaring.
European airlines could face jet fuel shortage by June if strait remains blocked, IEA warns
“Several European countries may start to face shortages of jet fuel in the next six weeks, depending how much they are able to import from international markets to replace the lost supply from the Middle East, which accounted for 75 per cent of Europe’s net imports of jet fuel previously,” the IEA said in an e-mailed statement to The Globe and Mail.
Canada is largely self-sufficient in jet fuel, producing 80 per cent of its needs and importing much of the rest from refineries in the northeast United States. However, Canadian airlines could see their routes affected by shortages overseas, said John Gradek, who teaches aviation leadership at McGill University.
An overseas shortage of jet fuel would spur Canadian airlines to consolidate flights because they cannot carry enough fuel for return trips, he said. “You’re going to have cancellations for sure.”
With reports from Reuters