At some gas stations on the outskirts of Tokyo, today a liter of regular gasoline is sold for 159 yen, about 90 euro cents. The price varies depending on the establishment, but subsidies from the Japanese government help to contain it in a time of rising oil prices. Since March, Sanae Takaichi's executive has been applying aid to operators in the sector with the goal of keeping the national average price around 170 yen per liter, the lowest price of all G-7 countries.

Airlines have planned a 1.9% increase in seat supply for this winter at Barcelona airport, below the average for the entire network (5.5%) and that of Madrid-Barajas (10%), according to data from the employers' association Airline Association (ALA). Over the last two years, the airport facilities of the Catalan capital exceeded their theoretical capacity of 55 million passengers, and in the current fiscal year they are on track to do so again. In total, the supply of seats on planes at all Spanish airports will be 145.6 million in the winter season, from this month of October until March of next year.

With a quick internet search, you can find round-trip plane tickets between Barcelona and Brussels for less than 70 euros. The same journey by train (which requires a transfer) costs more than 200 euros. And if it were done by car, between fuel and tolls, it would cost at least about 400. How is such a big difference possible? The answer lies, in part, in the tax exemptions that kerosene enjoys.

Ryanair completes fiscal year 2026 with a 40% jump in profit, to a record figure of 2.26 billion euros. The low-cost airline has earned 15.54 billion euros between April 2025 and March this year, 11% more than in the previous fiscal year. The economic improvements have been recorded following a 4% increase in passengers, who exceeded 208 million in the 12 recorded months.

Spain has kerosene reserves for 90 days if we consider operational reserves (the stocks kept by oil companies and airports to ensure the daily supply of this essential fossil fuel for aviation) and strategic reserves (the inventory held by the State). This means that if kerosene stopped arriving or being produced in the State from tomorrow, there would be reserves of this fuel until the beginning of August.

The German airline Lufthansa has reported that the closure of its short-haul airline Lufthansa CityLine will reduce the group's capacity by 1% and means the elimination of 20,000 flights, equivalent to about 40,000 metric tons of aviation fuel, a product whose price has doubled since the outbreak of the war in the Persian Gulf.

The conflict in the Middle East and the crisis in the Strait of Hormuz are boosting the production of kerosene, but also of diesel and gasoline in Spain. The eight Spanish refineries, one of them in Tarragona, which make Spain the third European country with the greatest refining capacity, are operating "at maximum" to meet the demand for these types of fuels. In particular, there is high demand for kerosene in aviation, especially for the summer months when this means of transport will be boosted by tourism. "Refineries are maximizing their production," explain sector sources to ARA.

The International Energy Agency (IEA) has issued a serious warning: several countries on the European continent could suffer a shortage of jet fuel within six weeks. The main cause is the extreme dependence on supplies from the Middle East, a region that before the conflict covered 75% of Europe's net kerosene imports.