Airlines’ cuts to weaken oil

Jet fuel’s 100% rise over the last year to a record $4.36 a gallon is setting the stage for its decline in the next six months.

AMR Corp.’s American Airlines Inc. and UAL Corp.’s United Airlines Inc. are among carriers readying their biggest cutback in fuel use since 1991 because of the price.

The U.S. airline industry plans to ground 413 aircraft, eliminating 8.8% of seating capacity, as increasing fuel costs spur losses of as much as $13 billion, the Air Transport Assn. says.

Fuel demand will fall 7.5% this year, or 95,000 barrels a day, and 104,000 barrels a day in 2009, according to the U.S. Energy Department.

“People are responding to a doubling of prices, and the airline industry is one industry that is responding,” said Edward Morse, chief energy economist at Lehman Bros. Holdings Inc. “The markets will weaken significantly after the third quarter.”

The decline in airline fuel consumption parallels the drop in gasoline sales to a five-year low as drivers take vacations closer to home and use mass transit.

The airline cutbacks “should help bring the price down,” said Peter Beutel, president of energy consultant Cameron Hanover Inc. in New Canaan, Conn. The current premium is because of “more than anything the summer demand, the peak demand.”