Hong Kong, April 13 -- At any other time airlines would be celebrating. One of their biggest operational costs, the price of fuel, plummeted dramatically last month after a price war erupted between Saudi Arabian and Russian oil producers. The plunge in price was a reaction to the rout of stock markets worldwide brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic. "We have seen something like a US$20 a barrel fall in the price of oil and jet fuel since the start of the crisis, down to the range of $30 a barrel or so," International Air Transport Association (IATA) chief economist, Brian Pearce, said in March. "In a full year, that would save the industry around $45 billion on fuel."
It would have been a big win. In 2019, fuel cost the industry $188 billio...