Peter Campbell

So the picture is quite complicated.

There's a number of different things going on.

Flights between Europe and Asia at the moment are very expensive.

That is because no one can travel through the Gulf.

But in Europe in particular, something funny is happening, and that is on short haul, predominantly on classic holiday destinations like Italy and Spain.

Some of the prices are coming down.

And that is because a lot of jet fuel comes through the Strait of Hormuz.

There are concerns that if it remains closed, there are going to be some places that will just not have enough come the middle of summer.

And so consumers, holidaymakers reading this, are understandably worried about whether there will be flights in the summer and so are pushing back, booking their holidays.

And so what you've seen from some of the budget airlines, particularly in Europe, is that they have started to drop prices in order to try and encourage people to book now.

So airlines struggle to make money at the best of times.

And what they say at the moment is we're in extraordinary circumstances.

Our fuel costs have doubled.

We need some sort of help from governments and regulators to help us get through this crisis.

That's all true.

But in reality, what is also going on is there are lots and lots of rules that govern whenever you fly, how many bags you can take on the plane, where that plane can refuel.

issues around compensation if the plane is running late.

The airlines hate quite a lot of those rules and are channeling the old political maxim, you should never let a crisis go to waste, in asking the regulators to push back these things.

And to be fair, both the UK and the EU have given some ground on this already.

So, you know, the airlines have got certainly some of what they want in this, but it's very much been as a result of a pretty coordinated lobbying effort from them.