Airlines are asking for more help to combat against the impact of jet fuel shortages caused by the ongoing conflict in the Middle East. A travel expert said airlines are demanding slot alleviation and a relaxation of "use it or lose it" rules.

Speaking to the BBC, Simon Calder said airlines are putting increasing pressure on slot coordinators to relax the rules amid a surge in fuel prices. The war in Iran, and the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, has caused huge disruption to oil supplies which has set the price of jet fuel soaring. Some airlines have already cancelled flights while others have hiked prices.

Mr Calder said: "The crucial thing is that there is certainly airlines cancelling flights in the 10s of thousands and they are also putting pressure on individual governments to make sure they are not penalised and, typically, if we look at the situation in the UK, the airlines here have got together and said 'right, here's what we want from the government. We want alleviation of slot rules'."

Independent coordinators, such as Airport Coordination Limited (ACL), are responsible for allocating airline slots at congested airports. They must comply with international guidelines to allocate takeoff and landing times.

Trade body Airlines UK recently submitted a list of policy requests to the government, on behalf of carriers including British Airways, easyJet, Ryanair, Virgin, TUI and Jet2, which included the alleviation of slot rules. The rules were last eased after the Covid-19 pandemic and allow airlines to cancel flights without putting their rights to fly from major airports at risk.

Mr Calder added: "That means, as we've got two of the busiest airports in the world here, London Heathrow and London Gatwick, the permission to take off and land are extremely valuable.

"They are issued on a 'use it or lose it' basis and if you don't use the slot enough then it goes back into a pool and somebody else picks it up. So they have won already, it appears, something called slot alleviation which allows them to cancel a proportion of flights but keep the slots."

Mr Calder added that some airlines are cutting flights while others have added fuel surcharges in response to the jet fuel price increases. Lufthansa Group recently announced it will cancel 20,000 flights over the next six months to save 40,000 metric tonnes of jet fuel while Air France and KLM, who operate out of the UK, have increased ticket prices.

The expert explained: "If you look worldwide, the northern hemisphere as we're hearing it's east Asia that's seeing the biggest changes at the moment. For example, Air Asia has cut around 10% of their flights and they are adding fuel surcharges of typically $20 per flight.

"If you look at some of the bigger long-haul carriers, Japan Airlines has announced fuel surcharges of up to $300 to $400 per flight. Ultimately, it's all about what the market will bear and it may be that people will simply move to other airlines."