Fuel crack spread soars

Airlines are feeling the increased pressure of the elevated oil price as the crack spread – the difference between the basic Brent oil price and the jet oil price – reached 50% last week. IATA’s Willie Walsh commented this week that he didn’t recall seeing levels this high ever before. “I looked back over the 10-year period up to 2019, where it averaged about 17%,” he said. Walsh added that the IATA economists had expected the crack spread to reduce as jet fuel supply increased, however, he commented that this hadn’t happened since “the recovery in demand is stronger than