Passengers booked on UK-based airlines face a summer of reshuffling flights as the government changes the rules to allow pre-emptive cancellations.
With planning for jet fuel supply disruption a big part of the response to the Iran war, the government is seeking to allow airlines to consolidate already announced services.
Tehran has blocked shipping out of the Strait of Hormuz since the early days of the war and has been met with a tit-for-tat blockade of tankers going into its ports by the US.
This has placed a stranglehold on the shipping route, through which a fifth of global oil usually flows daily and has played havoc with jet fuel planning.
A Transport Department statement said the government hoped to grant airlines flexibility to "lock-in flight schedules" by taking a decision that prevented last-minute disruptions and cancellations.
Heidi Alexander, the Transport Secretary, said the move would safeguard passengers' entitlement to be re-routed or refunded if their flight is cancelled by the airline.
The change to the rules avoids airline fears of the loss of slots by not operating a certain volume of flights on allotted routes.
So-called "hand backs" of airline take-off rights would keep the airline schedules realistic. It hopes to avoid either last-minute cancellations and flights of empty "ghost flights" that would not use the same amount of fuel as a loaded aircraft.
"Since the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, the government has been monitoring jet fuel supplies daily and working with airlines, airports and fuel suppliers to stay ahead of any problems," said Ms Alexander. "There are no immediate supply issues, but we’re preparing now to give families long-term certainty and avoid unnecessary disruption at the departure gate this summer."
Inflation spike
Prime Minister Keir Starmer used a radio interview on Saturday to say the war had compounded the economy's structural weakness. There was no going back to the economy as it was tracking in February when the war started.
"Each time we have a crisis like this, whether it’s the 2008 crash, whether it’s Brexit, Covid, the government of the day aspires to get back to the status quo as quickly as possible," he said.
“But the status quo wasn’t working. And therefore, we cannot do that again. We have to take a different course in response to this crisis.”
Asked if he was preparing the public for an inflation spike caused by the Iran oil crisis by comparing it with previous global events, Mr Starmer said: “I am. And the reason is because we’ve got a war on two fronts.
“I think we obviously have to pull together countries to get the Strait of Hormuz open. And that’s what I’m doing in the coalition I’m leading with President Macron that we have been working very hard on in recent weeks and we need to get the strait opened as quickly as possible.
“But even when that happens, I don’t want anybody to think that once the Strait of Hormuz is open, it all returns to normal. It won’t be like that.”
Jet fuel exports from the five Gulf states fell by about 80 per cent in March during the Iran war as part of a wider disruption that wiped more than 10 million barrels a day from global oil supply.
Exports of the fuel used in aviation and related industries fell 79 per cent to 127,000 barrels a day in March, down from 605,000 bpd a year earlier, according to data from shipping intelligence platform Kpler.
