Airlines that cancel flights because of fuel shortages this summer will still have to compensate passengers under European law, the EU transport commissioner has said.

Apostolos Tzitzikostas told the Financial Times that jet fuel prices or shortages do not meet the criteria that protect EU airlines from passenger claims.

“The price of jet fuel is the reason why we have cancellations of flights and if they cancel flights without extraordinary circumstances – jet fuel prices are not extraordinary circumstances – they will have to reimburse the people,” the commissioner said.

Although the EU law remains in place in the UK post-Brexit, Keir Starmer’s government is free to take a different position. Last week, it emerged that penalties for airlines that cancel UK flights because of jet fuel shortages have been eased.

Ryanair, the biggest airline in Europe, said this week it would not be cancelling summer flights because it had hedged its fuel contracts before the Iran war broke out.

However, other airlines have cancelled flights, including Germany’s Lufthansa and Ireland’s Aer Lingus.

Tzitzikostas’s remarks came as the boss of a large airline in Asia said the fuel crisis was worse than the Covid pandemic, when planes were grounded amid global travel bans.

“I thought I’d seen it all with Covid … but having seen jet fuel go up almost three times – this is much worse,” Tony Fernandes, the chief executive of AirAsia, told the Financial Times.

“You wake up one day and your major cost has tripled – it was quite a new experience for me and I’ve been through a lot in my life,” he added.

The cost of fuel has spiked since 28 February, when the US and Israel launched their war on Iran. The effective closure of the strait of Hormuz to shipping has choked off oil exports from the Middle East.

A spokesperson for Ryanair said: “As Ryanair has hedged 80% of our jet fuel to March 2027 at $67 per barrel – less than half current spot prices – we do not plan any cuts to our schedule this summer.”

The UK government spokesperson said: “UK airlines are clear that they are not currently seeing a shortage of jet fuel. Aviation fuel is typically bought in advance and airports and suppliers keep stocks of bunkered fuel to support their resilience.

“We continue to work with fuel suppliers, airports, airlines and international counterparts to keep flights operating. We are also consulting on measures to help airlines plan realistic flight schedules which will avoid last-minute disruption and protect holidays, a spokesperson for the Department for Transport said.

Despite the war, AirAsia is cementing its long-term future.

The airline has sealed a $19bn (£13.9bn) deal to buy 150 Canadian-made Airbus A220-300 jets from 2028, the two companies said, with the low-cost carrier saying on Thursday that it could double the order to meet future demand.

The deal, which was announced at Airbus’s facility in Mirabel, a suburb of Montreal, represents the largest order in Canadian aircraft history,

It will also be a fillip to workers in Northern Ireland, expected to provide years of work at the Short Brothers’ plant in Belfast, which makes wings for the Airbus A220.