Airline Industry’s Fuel Spending To Touch $291 Bn In 2024: Report

As the Covid-19 pandemic led to a decline in fuel spending across airlines, there has been an upward trajectory in this segment in the last two years. As per the data by Stocklytics, the total fuel spending by global airlines is set to hit an all-time high in 2024 as the forecast is of USD 291 billion. This forecast is nearly USD 100 billion more than the global airline fuel spending in 2019.

However, global fuel usage is expected to remain around 99 billion gallons in 2024, marginally up from 96 billion gallons in 2019. This indicates that the airlines are spending more money to procure the same amount of fuel.

As per the data from the International Air Transport Association (IATA), the airlines worldwide reported a fuel usage of 96 billion gallons, which cost them around USD 190 billion. In 2020, due to the pandemic, fuel usage dipped to 52 billion gallons, for which the airlines spent USD 80 billion. The segment remained on the same level in 2021 when the fuel usage marginally increased to 62 billion gallons.

2022 saw the levels slowly returning to normalcy as global airlines spent nearly USD 215 billion towards their fuel usage of 77 billion gallons. IATA data revealed that in 2023, the spending rose to USD 271 billion against the fuel usage of 92 billion gallons.

As the fuel spending by the global airline industry is set to touch USD 291 billion, the reasons for such have been attributed to the rising fuel prices due to the Russia-Ukraine war and the Israel-Palestine conflict.

On the bright side, the airline industry is also projected to generate much more revenue. As per the estimates, the total number of airline passengers is expected to reach around five billion by the end of 2024, which is around 400 million more than before the pandemic. The industry’s revenue is also likely to touch USD one trillion in 2024, a USD 158 billion increase as compared to 2019.