With news of oil prices surging and huge swathes of airspace cut off to various nations, many travellers have questions about the knock-on effect for travel costs and logistics this year.
Fuel is one of the key costs of travel: for aviation, the ferry and cruise industries, and for ground-based operators. Some firms are partially protected by “hedging” arrangements – an agreement to buy a certain amount of fuel their fuel needs at a specific price.
But as a result of the coronavirus pandemic, many companies have opted not to hedge because of the costs involved in this form of financial insurance. They are now seeing the cost of providing their promised service rise significantly higher than before.
Elsewhere, planes are flying elaborate and lengthy routes to avoid certain countries and regions’ airspace, following the EU, UK, US and Canada’s ban of Russian aircraft from their skies, and Russia’s reciprocal ban on 36 countries.
So what does this mean for your imminent trips?
Our expert Simon Calder will be on hand to answer all your latest travel questions in an ‘Ask me anything’ event this Thursday, 10 March, between 4pm and 5pm. He will be answering live in the comments section below.
Register to submit your question in the comments box under this article. If you’re not already a member, click “sign up” in the comments section to leave your question.
Don’t worry if you can’t see your question – they will be hidden until Simon joins the conversation to answer them.
Then join us live on this page on Thursday from 4pm as Simon tackles as many of your travel queries as he can within an hour.
