Air travel is slowly but surely beginning to revive in the United States. And with it, the demand for aviation fuel. The head of a U.S. oil processing company told Reuters.
Coronavirus vaccination is bearing fruit in the United States in the form of increased interest in air travel. As a result, demand for aviation fuel is also starting to revive. “Demand is starting to pick up and show signs of recovery. This allows refineries to increase the share of oil processed into this type of fuel,” Joe Israel, managing director of Par Pacific, an Oil Processing Company, told Reuters.
In March, there was an increase in the number of passengers travelling by plane in the United States. However, passenger traffic is still about 38 percent below pre-coronavirus levels. However, as the number of Americans vaccinated grows, the numbers can be expected to continue to improve.
Capacity utilization of U.S. refineries is still about 10 to 15 percent below pre-pandemic levels, but processors expect the gap to narrow in the foreseeable future.“By the summer, refineries’ spare capacity could be around 5 percent,” Joe Israel told Reuters.
