Alistair Bunkall
๐ค SpeakerAppearances Over Time
Podcast Appearances
Well, some people think it would be a good thing to get the Europeans having direct channels of communication to the Kremlin.
Others, particularly Eastern Europeans, don't like that idea.
They say, as soon as you appoint a mediator, that mediator has to be neutral to have any kind of credibility.
And we don't want the EU to be neutral.
We want the EU to be fully and squarely behind us.
Yeah, we did an interview with him earlier this week, and he was pretty blunt, wasn't holding back.
I think we've seen with some of the airlines, of course, sort of understandably because of their market position, they don't want to scare consumers.
But the EU is aware of that.
of the risks, particularly if the Strait of Hormuz remains blocked for much longer.
The EU as a block imports around 40% of its aviation fuel, of which around half of that comes or would normally come through the Strait of Hormuz.
So they know that there is a โ well, in the words of Dan Jorgensen, it is already a crisis, a crisis โ
as big as 1973 and 2001 combined.
So in their eyes, it is already very, very bad.
But of course, it could get much worse.
And whilst there are stocks generally around Europe and different countries have different levels of stock depending on capacity and where they are.
It doesn't take many more weeks for this situation to continue, and those stocks will dwindle.
And as we head into the summer holiday season, it could have a real impact on people's ability to fly around Europe.
And they were suggesting, think about holidaying at home.
Now, some people might say it's OK if you live in Italy.