The price of jet fuel averaged $4.53 USD per gallon for the week ending Sept. 18, according to the latest Airlines for America U.S. Jet Fuel Index.
Driven by the war in Iran and closure of the Strait of Hormuz following the U.S.-Israeli strike on Iran at the end of February 2026, this price is a nearly 80% increase from the national average a year ago.
As a result, almost every major and regional airline has had to keep reworking its networks to maximize jet fuel use and ruthlessly cut any flights not bringing in the expected traffic.
Airline chief executives have also been sounding the alarm on what prolonged jet fuel prices could mean for the industry.
"If fuel prices remain as high as they are right now, I think that that's going to require some adjustments in terms of our capacity planning as we take a look into the future," American Airlines CEO Robert Isom said at the annual Morgan Stanley Laguna Conference in California on Sept. 16, Airline Geeks reported.
Along with the cancellation of several high-profile routes to Middle Eastern cities due to the security situation in the region, American Airlines has scaled back operations on multiple domestic flights.
Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) bore the brunt of recent cost-cutting, with routes there from cities such as Cleveland and Pittsburgh that were initially supposed to run through the fall now temporarily suspended.
