Lufthansa is preparing to introduce refueling stopovers if destination airports run short of jet fuel due to the war in the Middle East, the airline group’s CEO said on Wednesday.

The measure would allow the German carrier to maintain its most profitable long-haul routes despite potential fuel shortages. The sector is facing a growing crisis because of the halt in tanker traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, which accounts for about half of the EU’s jet fuel imports.

“If you will not reach your target airport with the fuel that you’ve got, then you have to do refueling stops. We’re not there yet, but of course we are preparing for this,” Lufthansa CEO Carsten Spohr said during the presentation of the company’s first-quarter results.

The idea of adding refueling stops is not new.

Spohr said Lufthansa was forced to make refueling stopovers in Namibia last week because “there was no fuel in Cape Town.”

Similar issues also occurred in November.

Lufthansa subsidiary Swiss also did such a stop in 2024 on a Dubai-bound flight that refueled in Antalya, Turkey. Similar measures were taken on flights from Delhi and Singapore to Zurich, which had to stop in Vienna after Iran attacked Israel, forcing aircraft to burn more fuel to avoid the airspace of Iran, Iraq and Israel.

Lufthansa could make such exceptions the new norm in the coming months if the jet fuel crisis worsens and shipping traffic through the Strait of Hormuz is not restored.

“Until and including June, we assume that fuel supply, especially at our hubs, is completely ensured,” CFO Till Streichert told reporters. “If this should change, possible actions could be refueling stops on selected routes to Asia or Africa and elsewhere.”

Goldman Sachs research shared with POLITICO estimates that commercial jet fuel stocks in Europe, excluding government reserves, could fall to below 23 days of supply by the end of May or early June. That is a critical threshold flagged earlier by the International Energy Agency, beyond which airports may begin to face shortages.

This would occur under the base scenario, which anticipates that the situation in the Persian Gulf and Strait of Hormuz will normalize by June.

“Under an adverse scenario (normalization delayed to July), stocks could be depleted entirely by year-end,” the research said.

Lufthansa reported overall positive results despite higher fuel costs, with its first quarter revenues up 8 percent to €8.7 billion compared with the same period a year ago.

However, the group said that jet fuel prices, which have doubled since the start of the war in the Middle East, are expected to lead to additional costs of €1.7 billion in 2026.

In April, Lufthansa cut 20,000 flights to eliminate routes that had become unprofitable due to higher fuel costs. The company also retired the entire 27-aircraft fleet of its CityLine subsidiary ahead of schedule.

Lufthansa has hedged over three-quarters of its fuel, limiting its exposure to higher prices for this year.