The airline industry is heading for rising fuel costs as crude oil prices surge, and the weakest of the European airlines may not make it through the winter, Michael O’Leary, chief executive at Europe’s largest budget carrier Ryanair, said on Monday. “Spot prices close to $80 a barrel are going to lead to a significant shakeout in the industry as early as this winter,” O’Leary told Bloomberg Television , after Ryanair reported earlier today a 10-percent increase in its FY 2017/2018 profit. “Some of those loss-making airlines who couldn’t make money when oil was at $40 a barrel certainly can’t survive,” O’Leary told Bloomberg. Ryanair said in its FY 2018 release on Monday that “fuel will be a major cost headwind for the next 24 months.” Ryanair is currently 90-percent hedged for FY19 at around US$58 per barrel compared to the spot price of nearly US$80 a barrel. The […]