Airlines are back to hedging the price of fuel to protect themselves from higher oil prices next year, although the hedges are less risky and for shorter periods as uncertainty remains over when airline travel will return to pre-COVID levels. During the pandemic, the industry is estimated to have lost around $5 billion in total on forward hedges of the price of fuel, which hardly anyone needed last year with international flights grounded. Now some of the major airlines in Europe, as well as budget airlines, are back to hedging to protect themselves from higher oil prices, Bloomberg reports . “We continue to see significant opportunities to buy fuel forward,” Ryanair’s CEO Michael O’Leary said on a call this week, as carried by Bloomberg. Ryanair’s air traffic rebounded by 128 percent between April and September 2021 compared to the same period of 2020, the company said in its half-year […]