Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what contingency measures are in place to ensure (a) commercial flights and (b) people’s holidays are not cancelled this summer due to a shortage of jet fuel.

The Government is working closely with industry and regulators to ensure the resilience of jet fuel supply and the continuity of commercial aviation operations.

UK airlines have made clear that they are not currently seeing a shortage of jet fuel. Flights are running, holidays are going ahead as planned, and cancellations are no higher than would normally be expected at this time of year. We continue to monitor flight schedules closely and have not seen any significant changes to planned operations.

We are engaging with industry partners to monitor supply and demand, and to develop contingency options should disruption arise. As part of this, the Government has legislated to provide airlines with greater flexibility over their schedules, allowing any necessary changes to be made in a more orderly way and giving passengers advance notice.

Airlines are responsible for managing their operations, including decisions on scheduling. Where cancellations do occur and UK law applies, passengers are protected by Regulation (EC) 261/2004 which entitles them to a full refund or to be re-routed to their destination.