MIAMI (WSVN) – With spring break in full swing across South Florida, many are facing challenges due to rising air travel costs.
Local travel agent Gus Machado said he’s seen a massive ripple effect on business and leisure trips abroad due to the ongoing conflict overseas.
“We had a huge group, 246 corporate employees, going over to Europe for a 10-day conference, and they got canceled. Company wasn’t worried about liability, and then another thing is, let’s say the airspace got closed, how long are they gonna be stuck in that country?” said Machado.
Several major events, including Formula One races and a soccer match scheduled for Qatar, have been canceled due to concerns about the war with Iran.
Machado said any flights heading toward the Middle East over the next few months have also been getting canceled, causing headaches for travelers who need to make alternate plans.
“Dubai, Qatar, any of those places that we had any trips going up in the next three months, they’ve canceled them all. Some people are rescheduling to different areas, and some people are canceling; they’re gonna wait to see what happens with this war,” said Machado.
While many South Floridians have been grappling with soaring pump prices in the weeks since the war began, the consequences of those rising costs have stretched into other critical aspects of day-to-day life, including ticket prices for all flights.
“Yes, ticket prices are gonna go up across the board in traveling,” said Machado.
Chris Sununu, the president and CEO of Airlines for America, a lobbying group that represents major airlines across America, said that when jet fuel costs jump at the rate that they have in recent weeks, raising ticket prices is an unavoidable solution.
“Jet fuel is about 25 percent of the cost of putting an airplane in the air, on the operations, so it’s a very large amount considering the overall operations, so when that doubles, unfortunately, you’re going to see ticket prices go up. This is a spike, we want it to be temporary, until you secure the Strait of Hormuz, you’re really not gonna get there,” said Sununu.
The Strait of Hormuz, which separates the Persian Gulf from the Gulf of Oman and the Arabian Sea, and points beyond, has become a critical focal point during the war, through which 20 percent of the world’s oil normally flows. Because of the war in the Middle East, it is now at a standstill.
The longer the conflict continues, the more likely those higher airfare prices will remain elevated, according to Sununu.
“If this issue in Iran were to go beyond Memorial Day or something like that, the way I put it is, the pricing would get a little stickier,” said Sununu.
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