Liviu Constantin, Director of Development at Craiova International Airport writes about how aviation has become the “forgotten child” of refineries during the escalation of tensions in the Middle East, proposing a radical shift in how airports and airlines collaborate.
If we look at what is happening in aviation today, it is easy to fall into the trap of focusing solely on oil prices. We see charts, headlines about barrels, and everything seems like a simple cost issue. But digging a little deeper, you realise the situation is much more severe than just more expensive plane tickets. We are facing a crisis of availability, not just price.
The biggest difference from the pandemic, when, let’s be honest, the problem was that no one wanted to travel, is that now we have a supply crisis. People want to fly, airlines have scheduled flights, but the necessary fuel has become an increasingly scarce resource.
If in 2020 the question was “how do we survive without passengers?”, today the question is “how do we operate without resources?” This is the shift from a commercial survival crisis to one of pure operational survival.
The problem is that aviation has become the “forgotten child” of refineries. During an energy crisis, governments prioritise what matters most to consumers: petrol for cars, diesel for lorries. Jet fuel, in this hierarchy of priorities, ranks last. And when you add geopolitical tensions like the situation in the Strait of Hormuz, you end up in a major logistics deadlock.
Even if tomorrow, through some diplomatic miracle, everything returned to normal and tankers could flow freely, aviation would not recover overnight. Sadly, you cannot just turn a tap and everything returns to normal. Supply chains are complex, refineries need time to reconfigure, and stocks are already at critical levels – in many parts of Europe, there is talk of reserves lasting only six weeks. This is an extremely small margin of error for an industry that operates by the minute.
Moreover, we are starting to see a kind of “energy nationalism”. Countries are beginning to hoard reserves for their own consumption for fear of running short. This further fragments the market. Airlines are battling not just prices, but also uncertainty. You can have the money ready, but if there is nowhere to buy the fuel, the plane stays on the ground.
The most optimistic scenario experts are putting forward is about two months to stabilise flows, but even that comes with many question marks. Until then, we are facing a period where airlines will be forced to co-operate, share stocks, or inevitably cut routes.
This is not a crisis that will solve itself. We need to rethink how airports and airlines manage their stocks. Energy security is no longer just a topic for politicians; it has become the primary management problem for every airline operator in the world.
Airports and airlines are fighting not only market prices but this trend of energy nationalism. It is the exact state of mind from March 2020, during the pandemic, but transposed into geopolitics. Now, uncertainty forces operators to lock down their logistics and desperately seek fuel-sharing solutions – a practice almost non-existent in times of normalcy.
From ‘client and supplier’ to ‘partners in survival’
The biggest change this crisis demands is not in accounting, but in how airports and airlines communicate. If during the pandemic the airport was more of an administrator of empty spaces, today it is becoming a strategic hub of energy resources. The relationship between the two main actors: the airport that holds the logistics and the operator that consumes the fuel, must move out of the “I sell, you buy” transactional zone and into one of radical transparency.
Are we willing to give up yesterday’s efficiency margins to ensure we operate tomorrow?
Another lesson from the pandemic is related to how hard it is to restart an engine that has been turned off. During the pandemic, it was about people, rehiring pilots and checking planes taken out of mothballs. It was a long and bureaucratic process. Today, the recovery process is physical, industrial, and much slower. You can decide that the war is over, but you cannot decide that the refined oil will instantly reach the plane’s tank. It must be pumped, refined, transported by sea, then by pipeline. If during the pandemic the restart depended on lifting travel restrictions, now the restart depends on the physical and logistical recovery of the entire ecosystem, which moves at a much slower pace than that of politicians signing peace treaties.
A common voice before regulators
Airports and airlines have often been in opposite camps regarding fees and policies. Now, both sides need a common voice to pressure governments. Jet fuel must be prioritised over other industrial consumers during crises. This is not a selfish request, but a vital one for the economy. Without fuel, aviation stops, and without aviation, economic chains fragment even further.
The sky is still there
Although today’s logistical challenges are as real and pressing as ever, we must not lose sight of our industry’s essence: aviation has always been built on the ability to innovate under pressure. This crisis, no matter how complex it may seem, is not an end of the road, but a necessary turning point. We are witnessing a forced maturation, where the relationship between airports, passengers, travel agencies and airlines shifts from a model based on strict efficiency to one grounded in resilience and real partnership.
Let us not forget that people’s desire to connect, to discover, and to be together is the force that has kept aviation in the air for decades, weathering all sorts of economic storms and global crises. This force is, ultimately, much stronger than any temporary logistical barrier.
Behind every flight that takes off today lies the joint effort of teams that refuse to leave planes on the ground and who search, every day, for new solutions to keep the world moving. In the end, the turbulence passes, and the sky remains just as vast, waiting for us to find, once again, the path to normalcy. If our recent history has taught us anything, it is that when we collaborate and place the safety of connectivity above momentary competition, no crisis is insurmountable.
See you at the next take-off!
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