500 flights cut for 'maintenance' as experts warn Europe to run out of fuel in 'weeks'

Aer Lingus has said it is cutting 500 flights for 'mandatory maintenance' on aircraft, though the announcement comes at a time when experts are warning about the supply of jet fuel.

The Irish Independent reports that airline documents have this reduction impacting transatlantic flights as well as trips to popular European destinations such as Berlin, Amsterdam and Athens.

Flights to the UK from Ireland are also due to be cancelled but the paper reports passengers on those will have their journeys rebooked on different services.

According to the Independent flights to around 30 destinations will be affected until the middle of October, but they're not cancelling routes and the airline has said in most cases where travel is disrupted passengers will fly on same-day services.

Disruption to air travel is all going on in the context of concern over the supply of jet fuel to Europe as a result of the US and Israeli war with Iran.

Aer Lingus say they're cutting flights for 'mandatory maintenance' (Horacio Villalobos/Corbis/Corbis via Getty Images)

The US and Iran are currently in a period of ceasefire but the Strait of Hormuz through which 20 percent of the world's supply of oil and gas flows is closed.

It had recently reopened, but Iran had said they wanted the US to lift its naval blockade which hasn't happened, so one of the major arteries of the world's fuel supply remains blocked.

That's caused price rises and supply issues, and Fatih Birol, executive director of the International Energy Agency, warned that Europe has around six weeks of jet fuel supply left.

He said the blockade to the Strait of Hormuz was causing 'the largest energy crisis we have ever faced' with Japan, India and China which buy most of Iran's oil bearing the brunt of it, but Europe would be affected too.

Birol said there was 'maybe six weeks or so' of jet fuel supplies remaining, and as a consequence 'some of the flights from city A to city B might be cancelled as a result of lack of jet fuel'.

Some airlines are cutting flights and routes due to jet fuel price rises, as Air Canada said they were dropping some which weren't 'economically feasible' (Horacio Villalobos/Corbis/Corbis via Getty Images)

However, easyJet boss Kenton Jarvis said that while the war in the Middle East had cost them around £25 million in higher fuel prices he saw 'airports and fuel suppliers working well' and that the aviation industry only knows about the next three to four weeks supply of jet fuel anyway.

He said they were 'operating as normal' and had 'no concerns'.

Nevertheless, some airlines are cutting operations as Air Canada said it would be cancelling certain routes that were 'no longer economically feasible' due to the higher price of jet fuel.

Even if fuel supplies can be maintained the significant spike in the price of jet fuel since the start of the war is piling costs onto the aviation industry.